Grow Your Green Building Skillset Online — From Design to Retrofits From building science to retrofits, energy modeling, smart homes, and beyond, HeatSpring offers a comprehensive marketplace of green building courses. Join your expert instructors for weeks of top notch technical training. Deep Energy Retrofits – Upgrade existing residential and commercial buildings… Continue reading “Grow Your Green Building Skillset Online — From Design to Retrofits”
Deep Energy Retrofits for Historic Buildings Historic buildings are a special case in the world of Deep Energy Retrofits, as they bring additional constraints and special structural issues to the forefront. Still, bringing a beloved (but usually energy inefficient) community building into the resource climate of… Continue reading “Deep Energy Retrofits for Historic Buildings”
Building Automation Systems and Open Building Systems: Design Specs Building Automation Systems (BAS) specifications are a required piece of any building construction, upgrade or retrofit project. Learn about Building Automation Systems and Design Specifications for Open Building Systems in Ron Bernstein‘s latest course. Typically developed by a consulting engineer,… Continue reading “Building Automation Systems and Open Building Systems: Design Specs”
Water in Sustainable Building: Distribution, Uses & “Zero Net” Strategies In this free course, sustainable building expert Ann Edminster discusses the uses of water in sustainable building practices. Enroll and learn about… -The distribution of water on Earth -How water gets to and leaves building sites -How water is used… Continue reading “Water in Sustainable Building: Distribution, Uses & “Zero Net” Strategies”
Energy Models: Design Tools & Energy Use Simulators “What is an Energy Model?” In this brand new free course, P.E. and LEED Fellow Chris Schaffner explains. Chris describes a variety of methods for modeling building energy consumption. He starts with simple energy estimating tools of increasing complexity and… Continue reading “Energy Models: Design Tools & Energy Use Simulators”
Zero Energy Homes: Economics, Efficiency & Renewable Energy Integration What are Zero Energy Homes? How are they cost efficient and how do they help significantly lessen energy use? In this $30 course, sustainable building expert Ann Edminster has the answers. This course, designed as an introduction to all things Zero… Continue reading “Zero Energy Homes: Economics, Efficiency & Renewable Energy Integration”
Building Leak Detection and Measurement: Zone Pressure Diagnostics (ZPD) Want complete building leak detection and measurement? Zone Pressure Diagnostics (ZPD) is one of the most powerful analysis tools available…. …and the calculation aid from Residential Energy Dynamics (RED) is the most accurate and easy to use ZPD tool available. This… Continue reading “Building Leak Detection and Measurement: Zone Pressure Diagnostics (ZPD)”
Heat Recovery Ventilation Considerations in Zero Net Energy Homes Marc Rosenbaum discusses heat recovery ventilation considerations for zero net energy homes on the Zero Net Energy Homes course discussion board… Exhaust-only ventilation home health concerns Student 1: Do you know of any potential health impacts from living in a depressurized space–… Continue reading “Heat Recovery Ventilation Considerations in Zero Net Energy Homes”
Venting About Ventilation There is much debate within the building science community about how much ventilation is enough. Building science as a discipline has to deal with a lot of messy, noisy data, entrenched mythologies, and strong tendencies towards confirmation bias. On the… Continue reading “Venting About Ventilation”
HVAC Engineering: Chilled Floors + Humidity On the Integrated HVAC Engineering discussion board, expert Robert Bean answers questions about chilled floors and humidity considerations and air mixing… Student 1: Chilled floors seems like a great idea, and if you’re going to do a radiant system,… Continue reading “HVAC Engineering: Chilled Floors + Humidity”
8 Factors in Building Safe Double Stud Wall Cavities With Cellulose On the Passive House in the Real World discussion board… Expert instructor Mike Duclos discusses key factors to building double stud wall cavities (packed with Cellulose) safely Student 1: Hi Everyone, I’m excited to get started! I’m interested in looking into wall… Continue reading “8 Factors in Building Safe Double Stud Wall Cavities With Cellulose”
What’s the Difference Between Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators? On the Mastering Building Science discussion board, Allison A. Bailes III, PhD asks students: What is the difference between an ERV and an HRV? Allison A. Bailes III, PhD: In the homework, I asked, “What is the difference between an… Continue reading “What’s the Difference Between Energy and Heat Recovery Ventilators?”
The Emerging Importance of Carbon Dioxide for Healthy IAQ Twenty years ago a colleague gave me a portable carbon dioxide (CO2) monitor to use during my training sessions. These sessions were often in small, inadequately ventilated rooms loaded with too many breathing trainees. Tony suggested that I try to… Continue reading “The Emerging Importance of Carbon Dioxide for Healthy IAQ”
Infrared Thermography as a Quality Control Method for Foamed-in-Place Insulation – Injection Method Updated from the original printing in SPIE Vol. 1094 Thermosense XI (1989) Since November of 1985, FOAM-TECH has been utilizing an I.S.I. Model 91 Videotherm Camera to quality control the installation of foamed in-place (injected) polyurethane and polyisocyanurate insulation. Monitoring… Continue reading “Infrared Thermography as a Quality Control Method for Foamed-in-Place Insulation – Injection Method”
Air, Thermal, Vapor & Water Control Layers in Wall Assembly On the Mastering Building Science discussion board… Allison A. Bailes III, Ph.D. answers student questions about air, thermal, vapor and water control layers in wall assembly. Student 1: I’m going to repeat what’s been said about the control layers in my… Continue reading “Air, Thermal, Vapor & Water Control Layers in Wall Assembly”
Leaders in High Performance Building: Best Green Energy Efficient Custom Home of 2015 At HeatSpring, we celebrate innovative builders and designers who work to improve the overall quality and performance of public and residential buildings… Our Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway was created for those who have helped plan, design, construct, and/or operate a high performance building. Entrants… Continue reading “Leaders in High Performance Building: Best Green Energy Efficient Custom Home of 2015”
Two New Free Lectures on Healthier Homes and Buildings Enroll in Two New Free Lectures on Healthier Homes and Buildings Carbon Monoxide: What We Do Not Know Can Hurt Us‘ and ‘Green, Healthy & Profitable Buildings and Homes‘ In his free ‘Carbon Monoxide: What We Do Not Know Can Hurt… Continue reading “Two New Free Lectures on Healthier Homes and Buildings”
Leaders in High Performance Building: Addition & Full Gut Renovation At HeatSpring, we celebrate innovative builders and designers who work to improve the overall quality and performance of public and residential buildings… Our Leaders in High Performance Building Giveaway was created for those who have helped plan, design, construct, and/or operate a high performance building. Entrants… Continue reading “Leaders in High Performance Building: Addition & Full Gut Renovation”
Robert Bean on Fluid-Based System Concerns in HVAC Engineering On the Integrated HVAC Engineering Discussion Board… Robert Bean discusses losing boiler efficiency, vs. losing radiator efficiency, cycling a boiler to maintain average temperature in a system, using 3 way mixing valve (instead of a circulator) to control the temperature of the on the load… Continue reading “Robert Bean on Fluid-Based System Concerns in HVAC Engineering”
Health & Well-Being through Architecture, Building Science & HVAC Design Playing with Fire: Homeostasis and Alliesthesia Considerations in Architecture, Building Science and HVAC Design Copyright © Robert Bean, R.E.T., P.L.(Eng.) for HeatSpring Most people employed in the world of architecture, building science and HVAC understand the need for spaces which are… Continue reading “Health & Well-Being through Architecture, Building Science & HVAC Design”