EEBA's High Performance Home Blog

When Emmanuel Cosgrove and Mike Reynolds, co-founders of Ecohome, designed and built The Edelweiss House, they were simply trying to exhibit that affordable, energy efficient homes are achievable. “We undertook this project to show builders and homeowners that it isn’t that hard or expensive to build better-performing homes and that your true monthly overhead can actually be lower, right from the moment you move in.” Building a hyper-efficient cold-climate house 40 minutes outside of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in Gatineau Hills, had its own challenges because of the climate and the nature of the location. Add in the standards required for Canada Green Building Council’s LEED v4 certification, and the challenge is amplified. The resulting 1,552 sq. ft. passive solar home, where a visitor to Gatineau can rent a room and stay in, costs less than $250,000 to build, and energy bills were estimated to be less than $1.40/day, compared to a new home of comparable size that uses around 10... read more

In addition to some great sessions at this year’s High Performance Home Summit, we also offered the opportunity for attendees to earn the High Performance Builder and Site Supervisor Designations. 6 individuals joined Gord Cooke, Andy Oding and Mike Barcik to earn their EEBA High Performance Builder Designation after successfully completing Houses That Work, High Performance Mechanicals, and the HERS Associate. Each attendee took and passed the required test for each of the three courses. Congratulations to the following people who earned their High Performance Builder Designation: Roy Birney - Thrive Home Builders Matt Bohannon – R.E.S. Contracting Richard Fayad – QC Manufacturing Jason Hoyle - Thrive Home Builders Jacie Jeffrey - Thrive Home Builders Andy Llora – QC Manufacturing Adrion Marti - Thrive Home Builders Ricardo Schobert – QC Manufacturing Dane Stevenson – QC Manufacturing Greg Van Dam – Dwell Well “Thrive Home Builders is excited about ... read more

“So I decided to wing it. Ron's [Jones] talk to me was very provocative. We have to meet challenges. You want to know who is going to solve them? — the people in this room. Our big builders don’t do anything. Our big builders don’t take risks. Our big builders have no fire in the belly. They are harvesting the market. They harvest it when times are good and pull back when times are bad. And they have resiliency, because they have deep pockets and big capital. But we have creativity. We have drive. We have a saying at Thrive: When we see intractable problems, we need to deploy our secret weapon. And that is us. We live in a world where the worldwide engagement in our jobs is 16%. The United States and Canada lead the world with 29% of people fully engaged in their jobs. You want to know Thrive’s secret weapon? — 100% engagement. For every two hands we hire, we get a free brain. That is our secret weapon. We are a small fish in a very big pond. I have often thought that it’s a... read more

The EEBA High Performance Home Summit is now a full week behind us, but there were many highlights from the conference we’ll recap in this blog to get you excited for 2019! The conference opened up with an ode to the past as Harold Orr spoke at the Breakfast Plenary giving us a nostalgic look at the history of what we now call “Building Science” and showing us just how far things have come. It’s easy to become frustrated with slow-moving change in the industry, but his presentation really nailed down the importance of celebrating the wins we’ve had. Day 2 began with a lively conversation led by an expert panel on California’s Title 24 Standard. Ron Jones of Green Builder Media led the discussion on Day 3 and challenged everyone to stay optimistic about the future of the building industry. And we can’t forget to mention there were a ton of great sessions during all three days. We’d love to hear from you as to which were your favorites (maybe through that survey we emailed you ... read more

Tomorrow marks the start of the High Performance Home Summit in San Diego. We are extremely pleased with the lineup of speakers, courses, and events that will be offered. Make sure you download the Summit app to create your schedule and connect with other attendees. Two designation courses will be available this year at the Summit. The EEBA Site Supervisor Designation and the EEBA High Performance Builder Designation. Both will begin on Tuesday morning with the Builder Designation ending at the conclusion of the program on Thursday. The Site Supervisor Designation is a one-day only course. You’ll also find multiple tracks that aim to enhance your knowledge and improve your business strategy. On Tuesday morning we’ll be offering Energy Codes and Policy, Sales and Marketing, and Building Science tracks. Wednesday will cover Healthy Homes/IAQ/Ventilation, Water Efficiency & Conservation, Resiliency, Durability & Quality, and Innovation & The Future. Thursday will... read more

High performance home builders face several Indoor Air Quality challenges in the building process before, during, and after a home is constructed. Choosing a reliable ventilation solution is key for maximum efficiency. Panorama Homes, a custom green home builder in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wanted to install an effective system in several newly constructed single family homes. They felt it was crucial to select a competitive, high performing ventilation system and fan that could bring in enough fresh air to dilute harmful indoor pollutants and create an easier breathing environment for the families that were about to grow up and make memories in these new homes. Panasonic Eco Solutions’ Intelli-Balance 100 ERV was chosen to be the primary ventilation system in all new single-family homes. Carol Orona of Panorama Homes selected the system because of its overall efficiency and cost effectiveness, and technical features that provide builders with much needed flexibility,... read more

You may have seen the recent announcement regarding hotel overflow. While the venue hotel is sold out, there are a few rooms still available at the Bahia’s sister property, The Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa (call their direct Reservation line at 800-422-8386 to receive the $189 “EEBA Summit” rate). Additionally, we have listed 4 additional nearby hotels on our website that should have space available. If you’ve procrastinated until now but want to attend or sponsor the Summit, it’s not too late! There are still some incredible events available to sponsor - like the two-hour Evening Social Event Dinner Cruise aboard the Bahia Resort’s William D. Evans Victorian-styled sternwheeler. Guests will be treated to an open bar, three international food stations, and some fabulous views of Mission Bay. Sponsors of this dinner cruise will receive 10 complimentary event tickets, recognition on all marketing and promotional materials (in Summit app, as well as on-site signage), a... read more

The EEBA Designation for Building Professionals will debut at this year’s High Performance Home Summit. The 3-day/3-course program is created for builders, construction managers, sales professionals, and designers seeking a broad understanding of building science and the latest applications in high-performance homes, compliance and strategic innovations. The designation should help demonstrate to employers, supervisors, clients, and consumers an understanding of the most dynamic and important trends in constructing houses. On day one, Gord Cooke will be taking participants through EEBA’s climate-specific Houses That Work™ course, aimed toward educating building professionals on the house-as-a-system approach to home performance. Andy Oding will join Gord Cooke on day two to lead participants through High Performance Mechanicals for Houses That Work™ - a course focused on understanding the growing complexity and scope of residential mechanical systems to comply with energy codes. ... read more

High-performance homes require better HVAC design strategies than code-built homes. Builders can more easily understand high-performance needs by familiarizing themselves with basic HVAC design concepts and strategies. The first step is conducting a room-by-room load calculation. Local climates determine whether a building’s HVAC system is designed to first meet cooling or heating needs. Heating-dominant climates require heating needs to be addressed before cooling, and vice versa. Load calculations are based on the coldest and hottest days of the year to ensure systems provide comfort at both extremes. In any climate, high-performance homes have significantly lower cooling and heating requirements than code-built homes, so the best options for them might be very different than a code-built home. Split-ductless systems, for example, provide both cooling and heating in one highly efficient system, and are a great solution for high-performance homes. The systems are... read more

For the last five years, the Department of Energy at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has organized the “Race to Zero” Student Design Competition in Golden, Colorado. The event challenges college students and faculty from around the world through a design competition for zero energy-ready structures - both single-family and multifamily homes, as well as school buildings. This year’s event brought together 84 student teams from 68 collegiate institutions from nine different countries. EEBA has officially kicked off their student scholarship fundraising efforts by offering free attendance for two students per team to the 2018 High Performance Home Summit in San Diego. Each scholarship of $1,500 provides one student with full Summit registration and meals, double-occupancy for three hotel nights, tickets for a networking event and a dinner cruise, and $500 for transportation. The scholarship fund is the first initiative enabling interested students to attend and... read more