Webinar Series

Upcoming Webinars

Webinar Innovation and Experience with Various All-in-One Mechanical Systems to Streamline Retrofit Electrification in Single Family and Multifamily

Tuesday, October 15 | 2:00 PM Central
Meghan Duff, Jonathan Woolley, Brett Webster, and Stet Sanborn

Retrofit electrification of existing buildings is critical for reaching energy and climate goals, yet there are many substantial challenges with replacement of heating, cooling, ventilation, and water heating systems. In particular, the extensive rework required to switch to heat pumps is complex, laborious, disruptive, bespoke, and expensive. In this webinar, researchers and practitioners will share about innovations and experience with emerging system design strategies that advance efficient electrification of single family and multifamily buildings. In part through grants funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the California Energy Commission (CEC), the presenters have explored, installed, and monitored a variety of all-in-one, combi-, integrated-, and modular mechanical systems that combine most or all of the heating, cooling, ventilation, and water heating functions into pods or packages to simplify design, streamline installation, and enhance performance. This session will overview various technologies investigated, consider their tradeoffs, present an evaluation of their field performance and installation experience, and examine their applicability in different residential applications.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Introduce and discuss combined mechanical equipment both in development for and available in the US residential building market today.
  2. Understand installation experience, system performance, and serviceability from case studies of equipment installations in occupied apartments.
  3. Compare and contrast with conventional mechanical equipment retrofits, and evaluate market applicability for these products.
  4. Share lessons learned from field demonstration research on product design for manufacturers, system design for building owners and design teams, and installation procedures for contractors.

Register Now

Innovation and Experience with Various All-in-One Mechanical Systems to Streamline Retrofit Electrification in Single Family and Multifamily
Cutting Edge Ventilation to Improve IAQ Even With Tight Air Sealing

Webinar Cutting Edge Ventilation to Improve IAQ Even With Tight Air Sealing

Thursday, October 17 | 2:00 PM Central
Patrick Nielsen, Travis Rasch

A home today must not only be high performing, resilient and built using sustainable methods, the home must provide the individuals living within it a healthy environment. There are many factors that contribute to the overall healthy environment we provide our homeowners, but one of the most critical is the quality of the air they breathe. This webinar will briefly cover some ventilation basics before delving into the pros and cons of the various system types. Particular focus will be placed on the efficiency and indoor air quality advantages of balanced ventilation systems with recovery (HRVs/ERVs) and how indoor air quality automation will shape the future.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand why tighter homes without good ventilation can be problematic for indoor air quality

2. Understand the basics of quality ventilation including product certification and airflow optimization and verification

3. Understand the options for whole home ventilation along with the pros and cons of each

4. Understand in particular the health and efficiency benefits and installation options of balanced ventilation with recovery (HRVs and ERVs).

Register Now

Recent Webinars

Webinar The RESNET Carbon Trifecta: Embracing Environmental Justice through the Lens of Carbon Use Intensity

Tuesday, August 20 | 2:00 PM Central
Jacob Deva Racusin, Andy Buccino, Nicole Burger

Three RESNET standards combined: 1 - operations (HERS Index), 2 - the grid (CO2 Index) and 3 - embodied carbon (currently being written) provide capacity to analyze Carbon Usage Intensity. We'll explore time-of-use, load reduction and carbon sequestration in buildings at both the single-family and multi-family scale (500 units) to show cumulative impact. And discuss policy benefits of energy labeling and decarbonization for advancing energy equity, so that vulnerable populations can make informed housing opportunity decisions.

While the content is technical in nature, the presenters will draw a direct relationship to equity in the context of who has access to low carbon housing and how carbon reductions strategies in both operational and embodied phases can be scaled to the housing industry at large through the standards and programs being developed through RESNET. While the early adoption of low carbon strategies have been pioneered in large part by well-funded custom single family construction, the approaches being discussed in this presentation are designed to bring much broader access to the industry at large and in so doing, increase resiliency. Further, we will explore equity from a climate justice lens to understand which communities are most directly impacted by the climate crisis that the residential housing sector is currently contributing to and provide the context and motivation for why building resilience through these initiatives is so critical.

Learning Objectives:

1) Understand how the RESENT Carbon "Trifecta" allows calculation and analysis of blended metrics like Carbon Use Intensity.

2) Understand how such a blended metric facilitates a Whole Lifecycle Analysis at the residential scale and how close we are to being able to do this.

3) Understand the role that HERS Raters play in resiliency, especially in EJ neighborhoods, though the evolution of dynamic grid electrification, load management/reduction and carbon sequestration in buildings.

4) Understand the cumulative impact of simple materials substitutions at the scale of a residential development of 500 units.

Watch Now

The RESNET Carbon Trifecta: Embracing Environmental Justice through the Lens of Carbon Use Intensity
Energy Codes are Getting Complicated! It’s time for a simpler approach

Webinar Energy Codes are Getting Complicated! It’s time for a simpler approach

Tuesday, August 13 | 2:00 PM Central
Ryan Meres, Paulette McGhie

In the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), the primary residential provisions of the code (Chapter 4) consisted of four pages. That same chapter in the 2021 IECC is 21 pages long! Mandatory, prescriptive, performance, energy rating index, additional efficiency packages and UA trade-offs all combine to make IECC compliance complicated.

Prescriptive compliance is increasingly more expensive and complicated to use, and the performance compliance option doesn’t allow consideration for high efficiency equipment. The energy rating index path provides a whole-house performance approach but has aggressive targets that are complicated with amendments for ventilation requirements and no requirements for quality assurance oversight of third parties.

If the energy code’s primary purpose is to reduce energy consumption, why can’t we set performance goals and let builders figure out how to achieve it?

One recent example of this approach is in Texas. Texas House Bill 3215 updated the state’s universal energy code compliance pathway to allow builders to use the energy rating index for energy code compliance across the state, in lieu of the state energy code or any stretch code adopted by municipalities. The legislation ratchets down target ERI scores to improve efficiency through 2028, allowing builders to plan for future efficiency requirements.

Attend this webinar to learn how a simpler approach to energy code compliance can work, how it can be used to set a path to net-zero energy and how to implement it in your state.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn about the changes and complexities of the IECC over time.
  • Understand how the energy code can be simplified.
  • Be able to describe how a simplified performance-based approach has worked in other states.
  • Learn how a performance-based energy code approach can be used to get builders to net-zero homes more quickly.

Watch Now

Visit the EEBA Academy to view past webinars

Enter the EEBA Academy