What Are the Biggest Misconceptions About Building Performance Work?

When most people think about building performance work, they immediately picture energy audits, blower door tests, and monthly utility savings. But according to Amanda Hatherly, CEO of the Building Performance Institute, this narrow focus on energy efficiency misses the most compelling – and important – aspects of what building performance professionals actually do. The real story isn’t just about reducing energy costs; it’s about creating homes that actively support the health, safety, and comfort of the families living in them.

In this interview clip, Amanda reveals why shifting the conversation from abstract energy metrics to tangible health outcomes motivates homeowners to invest in meaningful home improvements that tackle problems at their source.

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Brit:  What would you say one of the biggest misconceptions are about building performance work?

Amanda: People think it’s just about energy efficiency and it really, even more so, is about health and safety and the long term durability of a home. At the same time, that’s actually what usually appeals to homeowners more when you go to a home. If you’re talking to a homeowner, energy efficiency savings, a blower door, insulation, and everything – that’s sort of just sort of external to people. It’s sort of money-related. 

The minute you start talking about the comfort in your home and you start talking about… especially your people’s health and their kids’ health and their kid who has asthma because there’s mold in the home and that type of thing. People are really inspired to do things and help fix up their homes with that story much more so than energy efficiency.

To me, the most important component of it is making sure that people are healthy and safe.

Brit: I can imagine that being an afterthought – until there’s a big issue – maybe it’s a big afterthought for folks. Just to help shed a little light – what sort of things fall under this bucket of health and safety like you mentioned? Mold or maybe water? What else is there? 

Amanda: For example, you may have little cracks in areas in your house where pests are getting in and those pests are, maybe cockroaches. Then the cockroach frass, which is the way they talk about poo, can exacerbate asthma in kids. 

Homeowners all the time are bringing materials into their homes and using cleaning products, for example, not realizing that they’re offgassing and they’re making them ill or sensitive to those chemicals. 

They may have a bathroom where there’s not a good ventilation system, and so there’s moisture buildup, which also leads to mold issues. There’s a lot of different aspects where you are just living in your home and you’re not realizing how that could be affecting health.

You’ve got this pest, so you think, I want to get rid of the pests, but now you’re spraying pesticides and the pesticides cause problems for you.