Better Homes, Better Future

In this session, the NAACP brings you an overview of the Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector (CESBS) Initiative and the stories of two members at the intersection of energy, equity, and housing. Lonnie Feemster, President of the Reno-Sparks Branch of the NAACP and former energy inspector, is known around town as “Solar Man.” With immense care, he built his own passive house that provides a 100% electric, low-consumption, and comfortable place for work and play for three generations. Daphany Rose Sanchez, founder of Kinetic Communities Consulting (KC3) and proud New York native, leverages partnerships and resources to help close the gap between the affordable housing and energy efficiency industry for diverse New York communities. Lonnie and Daphany share a passion for supporting Black and brown communities to understand the human cost of energy, save money, feel safe, and live in a cleaner environment. They will share a call to action through stories and lessons for building professionals to design projects, policies, and programs first and foremost for people and for justice.

Episode 3 in this exclusive 4-part series with Doug Tarry of Doug Tarry Homes concludes our review of the 11 critical steps involved in building a house as a ‘system.’ We look at managing occupant comfort and indoor air quality through system design by addressing such topics as building a better basement wall, reducing the A/C size, and creating greater comfort in the house by the windows we select, to name a few. Watch full webinar here. Listen to special podcast series here.

Episodes 2 and 3 in this exclusive 4-part series with Doug Tarry, of Doug Tarry Homes, explore the 11 critical steps involved in building a house as a ‘system.’ Customer comfort is paramount and we have to consider how the client will use their home. We must ask ourselves one simple question: “Am I making the homeowner’s life easier or harder?" Episode 2 looks at how to avoid improper planning and design from the outset, both of which can impact the entire home and create costly errors and rework. Watch full webinar here. Listen to special podcast series here.

This is the first installment in an exclusive 4-part series with Doug Tarry, President of Doug Tarry Ltd., an award winning, leading home building company in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Having built and labeled more Net Zero / Net Zero Ready homes than any other builder in Canada, Doug is currently developing a book called “From Bleeding Edge to Leading Edge: A Builders’ Guide to Net Zero Homes.” This discussion will provide an overview of Doug’s book and delves into what he believes are the 4 principles of modern design. Watch full webinar here at the EEBA Academy.

Joseph Molina and Rene Carter join us for a "Better Homes, Better Future" podcast discussion on the benefits and strategies for hiring veterans. The National Veterans Chamber serves both the individual Veteran and the organizations that support our Veterans and military families. Veterans and military families are able to access resources to find jobs, start a business, and obtain advice in current employment. Employers benefit by accessing resources to help them create a welcoming military-friendly workplace, free training programs and access tax benefits when hiring military Veterans. Watch full webinar at the EEBA Academy here.

This episode will cover strategies and elements of radon mitigation with Randy Nicklas, Senior Engineer at Huntsman Building Solutions. Building codes are steadily increasing the requirements for building envelope airtightness, along with mechanical ventilation. One aspect that is critical in tighter building construction is the need for maintaining a healthy indoor air environment. Outdoor pollutants entering the building include not only allergens and various chemical compounds, but also radon gas. This presentation will outline the advances in radon control. View full webinar in the EEBA Academy here.

High performance zero energy homes provide many benefits including cost savings, energy resiliency, durability, comfort, and sustainable operation. While these types of homes have been built for a long time, the knowledge of how to build them has historically been kept by few. Now with increasingly stringent building codes across the U.S., driven by long-term energy policy and growing demands on the energy grid, all builders and implementers need to know how to build high performance. This session will review key strategies to build high performance zero energy homes discussing measures that impact building envelope, heating, cooling, ventilation, water heating, and other loads. The episode will highlight electric technology including heat pumps. Learning Objectives: Understand key strategies to build high performance zero energy homes Examine strategies to reduce building heating and cooling loads Examine common mechanical systems Identify key system interactions in high performance zero energy homes Watch full webinar here at the EEBA Academy. www.eeba.org www.teamzero.org

Do you know how a properly installed rainscreen makes your building envelope more durable? In the first part of this webinar, Peter Barrett of Dorken Systems will look at how rainscreens work to add drainage and drying capacity to a typical residential wall. In the second part, Chris Donatelli of Donatelli Builders will discuss the real-life building and renovation of a home in Chicago. As original builder, Chris will tell his story of constructing the original home, issues he discovered, and his road to sustainable repair of the walls. You will hear his actual experience managing the moisture issues along with amazing details about when, where, and how damage occurred and was remediated. You will learn to: · Easily design rainscreen principles into your walls · Evaluate the long-term benefits of added drainage and drying · Understand the impact of moisture management issues · Apply appropriate remediation techniques View full webinar here at the EEBA Academy.

Healthier Homes Awareness for Building Professionals educational program is now LIVE! The course designed by experts from Allergy Standards, Construction Instruction, and EEBA teaches builders how to build a better air quality environment for customers. Taking care of customers health and helping them make better, more informed decisions when specifying and purchasing products and services that effect the very air they, and their loved ones, breathe. Episode guests: Dr. John McKeon, CEO of Allergy Standards and Gord Cooke, President of Building Knowledge Canada and Partner of Construction Instruction.  Register and learn more about the course here in the EEBA Academy. Watch full webinar here.

"Decarbonization" and "electrification" are becoming household words in some parts of the country. This discussion will demystify these terms, covering the motivations, benefits, and nuts and bolts of making the switch -- transitioning mixed-fuel homes to 100% electricity. If you have concerns about indoor air quality, resiliency, or the changing climate, there's something for you in this podcast. Learning objectives: Explain the benefits of electrifying homes to clients, friends, and family Understand how electrification supports resiliency goals Differentiate between the two electric alternatives to each of the four typical residential gas appliances Create a customized home electrification roadmap Episode guest: Ann Edminster, Founder and principal of Design AVEnues LLC Watch webinar here at the EEBA Academy.

This special Team Zero episode explores the current and evolving definitions of high-performance homes, their components, and how they affect global populations. For this episode, we are joined by Ken Johnson, Senior Manager of Performance Construction at Mitsubishi Electric Trane US and Rich Williams, Vice President of Alliance Green Homes. The discussion tackles the growing topic of the role that Indoor Air Quality plays in the construction and maintenance of high-performance homes. Listeners will learn about the critical green certification programs related to energy efficiency, and how they can move towards creating a high-performance home.

We’ve all heard that we need to “Build Tight and Ventilate Right,” but do we have the approaches that we need that are cost competitive, bring sales opportunities, and are beneficial to resiliency, comfort, and IEQ? In this podcast, we’ll briefly cover why it’s important to use balanced ventilation in tighter homes, but we will then move on to the most common strategies for getting each component right. This includes strategies for achieving tighter buildings and then a review of the seven most common balanced ventilation strategies with some tips and tricks along the way to make it work. Join Dan Wildenhaus, Technical Advisor and Industry Liaison for BetterBuiltNW on this journey to getting homes dialed in for our codes, certification programs, and most importantly our homebuyers’ future experience. Instructor: Dan Wildenhaus Watch on the EEBA Academy.

Chef Rachelle Boucher of Kitchens to Life cooks her favorite Chinese New Year dishes as two of the top experts in Indoor Air Quality bring a fresh perspective to traditional cooking and the vital role of ventilation in today's homes. Speakers: Rachelle Boucher, Chef & Induction Expert at Kitchens to Life Alex Siow, San Francisco Showroom Director Watch webinar

This 1924 Colonial home had fallen into severe disrepair before coming up for sale. As part of the much needed renovation, the new homeowners (two Steven Winter Associates, Inc. employees) wanted to eliminate onsite combustion and produce as much of their operating electricity as possible. Other goals included lower embodied energy materials and a healthy indoor environment. LEED v4.1 for Homes offered one platform to address energy, health, and materials. The home was gutted down to the foundation, framing, and floors before the year-long renovation. After the first 8 months of occupancy (July—February), the home produced 14% more energy than it consumed. Homeowners: Maureen Mahle and Steve Klocke Moderator: Aaron Smith Learn more

Are your ventilation practices keeping up? With the envelope of the home becoming tighter through new code standards, improved building materials, and increased awareness of Indoor Air Quality, a balanced ventilation strategy is critical for the health of the home and its occupants.  Join us to discuss the evolution of building ventilation codes, how to incorporate ventilation into voluntary programs like NetZero, which solution is the right choice for your home, and how to build a Healthy Air Home with additional Indoor Air Quality products.  Topics/Key Learnings Welcome and Intro How changing climate and codes will affect ventilation requirements Benefits to voluntary programs including Energy Star and NetZero ERV or Power Ventilators, which is the right choice? V22 – The perfect solution for comfort, code compliance and healthy air Properly commissioning ventilation units Combining ventilation with other IAQ equipment to create Healthy Air/Creating Healthy Air with Ventilation and Other IAQ Components

Closing keynote speaker, Eric Amyot, at the 2023 High Performance Home Builder Summit!

KB Home, in partnership with SunPower, the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Schneider Electric, Kia America and Southern California Edison (SCE), built two blackout-resistant communities, Durango and Oak Shade, comprised of more than 200 all-electric, solar- and battery-powered homes designed to use 40% less energy than similar homes and backed by a microgrid “community battery” in Menifee, California. This first-of-its-kind project models what the future of homes and connected communities could look like: creating minimal disruption to homeowners’ daily lives while significantly improving energy resilience for the community and energy efficiency for the broader region. Learning objectives: Team – KB Home will share about the different partnerships and collaborations that made this microgrid project possible. Technology – Attendees will learn about the features selected for these homes and how the technology work together to drive resiliency for the community.  Innovation – KB Home will share about two unique homeowner participation programs available at these communities: a virtual power plant (VPP) service and a vehicle-to-home (V2H) study. Impact – Attendees will learn about the projected impact of this microgrid project for residents, the greater community, and the environment.

In this webinar, you will learn about heat pump inverter technology from Daikin Comfort Technologies North America.  We will explore the many benefits of inverter technology and what this means to your new homes and homebuyers.  We will also explore Daikin and Goodman’s NEW heat pump inverter offerings along with smart controls and IAQ options. Learning Objectives: Understand Heat Pump technology and why is it important. Identify what Side-Discharge Inverter Systems are. Discover the configurations and applications of inverter systems. Learn about the consumer benefits of Inverter Technology.

As jurisdictions across the country consider electrification policy, industry understanding of their electric options for heating and cooling is increasingly important.  Attendees of this course will learn the benefits of innovative electric heating and cooling technologies, for examples: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions from the building sector as a result of displacing natural gas, propane combustion and oil heating.  Increases in electrical efficiency as a result of replacing using innovative systems such as ductless minisplits and ground source heat pumps Utility bill savings for ratepayers as a result of technology efficiencies and the ability to shift electric consumption to parts of the day when renewable energy resources are abundant and electricity prices are lowest. Concepts such as dual-fuel heating and cold climate heat pumps. Attendees will be familiarized with the various types of heating and cooling systems.

Attendees of this course will learn the benefits of water heating technologies, for examples: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions from the building sector as a result of displacing natural gas and propane combustion water heating. Increases in electrical efficiency as a result of replacing electric resistance water heaters. Utility bill savings for ratepayers as a result of technology efficiencies and the ability to shift electric consumption to parts of the day when renewable energy resources are abundant and electricity prices are lowest. Attendees will be familiarized with the various types of water heaters: Conventional storage water heaters offer a ready reservoir (storage tank) of hot water which is adequate for everyday use. In some instances, however, such as when simultaneous usage of hot water occurs, or when there is a longer durational need for hot water. Heat pump water heaters move heat from one area to another instead of generating heat directly to provide hot water, resulting in high efficiencies and significant cost reductions. Solar water heaters use the sun to heat water, reducing energy costs for homeowners. Tankless or demand-type water heaters heat water directly without the use of a storage tank. This type of water heater is designed to provide a sufficient supply of hot water without running out, when adequately sized. Tankless coil and indirect water heaters use a home's space heating system to heat water.