The High Performance Edge Podcast

Homeowners have no reliable way to tell a great installation from a mediocre one, and ACCA’s Quality Installation program is one of the few tools built to prove the difference. In this episode, PT talks with Wes Davis, ACCA’s Director of Technical Services and the main person driving QI. They cover where the program came from, how simple it’s become to use on the measureQuick platform, and why many contractors have adopted it to cut callbacks.But the bigger opportunity is market advantage. Homeowners are now researching contractors with AI and feeding quotes into ChatGPT, which tells them to ask whether a contractor commissions and verifies the system. That’s exactly what a QI certificate proves. PT makes the case that in most markets, the field is wide open for contractors who want to stand out on quality and prove it. Wes also covers the coaching and marketing support ACCA offers contractors who want to use QI that way. Learn more at acca.org/proveit.Episode Links: Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyEnergy Circle websiteEnergy Circle LinkedInPeter Troast, Energy Circle CEO and Founder LinkedInWes Davis LinkedIn ACCA QI ProgramACCA Callback Calculator

Tim De Stasio spends a full nine-hour day in a single house before he writes a recommendation. His comfort consultation covers envelope testing, HVAC system performance, airflow, a measured load calculation, moisture diagnostics, and two weeks of indoor air quality data — and it starts at two thousand dollars. He works in coastal North Carolina, a climate zone with brutal humidity and real building problems, but not necessarily a wealthy place. People are buying anyway.In this episode, Tim walks host Peter Troast through how the process works, what he’ll cut when a homeowner isn’t ready for the whole thing, and exactly what he says when someone hears the price and pushes back. They get into why the traditional energy audit model was never enough on its own, how AI search has become his most reliable source of new clients, and why a premium diagnostic can be a viable standalone business — or one piece of a contracting business that’s already doing this work.Episode Links: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on SpotifyWatch on YouTubeEnergy Circle websiteEnergy Circle LinkedInPeter Troast, Energy Circle CEO and Founder LinkedInTim De Stasio LinkedInComfort Science Solutions

For years, the indoor air quality (IAQ) and healthy home opportunity has felt like the tidal wave that never quite breaks. Homeowners are increasingly worried about the air inside their houses, but there’s a chasm between that worry and the performance of the building itself. Most still expect the fix to be a shiny air purification device. Darren Eckes, co-founder of Safe Air Pros, has built a business on the other side of that gap. His company runs on two tracks: a deeply comprehensive diagnostic practice (assessments almost entirely referred by physicians, for patients so sensitive to mold and biotoxins that they can’t get well until their homes are corrected) and a whole-house contracting arm that actually fixes the building.It’s a serious process for serious customers prepared to invest in what it takes. But what makes this conversation worth your time is the opportunity he openly shares. Darren is adamant this work isn’t rare air: he calls it a gigantic pie, wide open to any contractor curious enough to go deeper and build real diagnostic and building-science chops. For high performance contractors hunting a substantial new market that rewards doing it right, Darren’s the proof it’s there.Episode Links:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyWatch on YouTubeEnergy Circle websiteEnergy Circle LinkedInPeter Troast, Energy Circle CEO and Founder LinkedInSafe Air Pros

The entire industry is organized around one idea: scale. There are millions of homes to fix and we're moving too slowly. Dan Perunko built Balance Point Home Performance on the opposite bet—and made it work.In this episode of The High Performance Edge, Peter Troast talks with Dan, who runs an intentionally small shop in the California foothills doing comprehensive retrofits that almost always run north of $50,000 and can reach into the hundreds of thousands. He does very little marketing, yet can't keep up with the leads—in part because his website is blunt that he only does deep, comprehensive work and isn't a fit for everyone. And people still line up.Dan chose a different path but still shapes the industry, teaching openly at conferences and trainings nationwide as a founder of the Forum on Measured Performance. Listen or watch to hear Peter and Dan get into how the small model actually works—the economics, the website filter, and what a bigger contractor can take from it.Episode Links:- Listen on Apple Podcasts- Listen on Spotify-Watch on YouTube- Energy Circle website- Energy Circle LinkedIn- Peter Troast, Energy Circle CEO and Founder LinkedIn-Balance Point Home Performance-Forum on Measured Home Performance

Everywhere you turn in HVAC and home performance, some loud voice insists that posting prices online is the holy grail. Many contractors have concluded it's a mandate. But high performance contractors understandably bristle at pricing a job before they've even seen the house.In this solocast, Peter Troast works through the real picture: the four forces pushing price transparency, why instant quote tools fail in high performance work, and what Energy Circle's search and call-tracking data reveals about what homeowners genuinely want. He also shares why AI is becoming the high performance contractor's new best friend, and lands on a practical reframe: price orientation, not price transparency.Plus: a look at the prototype pricing page at demo.energycircle.com.Episode Notes:Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyWatch on YouTubeEnergy Circle WebsiteEnergy Circle LinkedInPeter Troast, Energy Circle CEO and Founder LinkedInHeat Pump Summit FREE TicketsPricing Page Example