You can’t HVACR your way out of a bad house. Too often, contractors are called in to fix comfort, humidity, or efficiency problems that aren’t caused by the equipment at all — they’re baked into the building itself.
Our panel of building performance experts will cut through the myths, answer questions, and share actionable solutions.
We’ll be covering:
Do furnaces “dry out” houses?
Can leaky ducts waste more energy than oversized systems?
What makes air sealing so important to a building’s efficiency?
Can MAD air destroy comfort?
When does a blower door test make sense?
What should you do with homes that are fundamentally flawed?
Join ACCA’s David Bixby, manager of codes and standards, Wes Davis, director of technical services, Ed Janowiak, manager of HVACR design education, and the confirmed panel of experts shown below. Bring your questions, toughest building problems, and favorite mug — this Codes & Coffee is about to get real.
This live webinar series provides a foundational overview of residential HVAC system design based on the ACCA Standard 5 – Quality Installation guidelines. Designed for beginners and those new to residential HVAC design, this four-part series covers the fundamentals of load calculations, equipment selection, duct design, and quality installation practices. Each 2-hour session introduces key concepts using real-world examples to help participants understand essential design steps and improve overall installation quality.
Energy Efficiency Products Decoded (Part 2) – Building Systems | August 28, 2025
This session dives into the systems that power our homes—HVAC, water, lighting, appliances, solar, battery storage, and more—revealing how to optimize them for maximum energy efficiency, comfort, and durability. You will explore innovative products, practical solutions, and emerging technologies to improve performance, save resources, and enhance sustainability in everyday living.
Maximizing Performance with Unvented Attics | August 7, 2025
Learn actionable insights into insulation options, design strategies, energy code requirements, and best practices for putting HVAC ducts “inside conditioned space” in order to maximize the energy efficiency, comfort, and durability of homes. This session unpacks the benefits of building with ducts inside a conditioned space, with particular emphasis on the most popular way to accomplish this, building an unvented attic and incorporating ducts inside the thermal envelope.
Grundfos Distributed Pumping is a hydronic system design that optimizes the entire HVAC system while improving occupant comfort. It replaces energy wasting balance and control valves in HVAC systems with intelligent, reliable and maintenance-free pumps that generate pressure only when and where it’s needed. Removing the balancing and control valves and replacing them with small horsepower intelligent pumps has multiple HVAC system benefits: a) significantly reduces the time consuming and costly process of balancing the HVAC system; b) also ensures a continuously balanced HVAC system years later; c) reduction of pumping energy required by 55% or more; and d) better Delta T control. This also translates to improved building comfort.
HVAC Issues in 2021 WA & Seattle Commercial Energy Codes
The March 20 webinar will cover HVAC Systems, including recent changes to accommodate legal and legislative issues. Full details and guest presenter will come soon!
Presenters:
Duane Jonlin, FAIA, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection
Special guest presenter!
Thursday, March 20, 202510:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Duane Jonlin, FAIA, Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection
Energy Trust of Oregon will be hosting a CEU eligible virtual HVAC Design training on November 5th, 2024, at 8:30 AM.
This will be an overview training focused on HVAC design best practices including:
Steps to Proper HVAC Design
ACCA Technical Manuals
Heat Loss & Heat Gain to Properly Select Equipment Size
Importance of Air Distribution
Tips & Tricks for Successful Installations
The training will be delivered by Gensco’s Technical Services Manager, Aaron Larson, and is designed for HVAC professionals or energy efficiency program professionals with a solid understanding of HVAC systems.
Advanced Pressure Diagnostics will utilize whole house thinking relative to house construction, air leakage and movement, forced air heating systems, ventilation systems, and climate. The goal of this class is to provide students with the skills necessary to decipher the unique mix of problems that every house has in relation to air movement, air leakage, pressure imbalances and flue drafting. This class will cover the science and practical application of air sealing, zone pressure diagnostics, infrared thermography, blower door testing, fan flow measurement, ASHRAE, and HVAC flow diagnostics and Combustion Appliance Zone (CAZ) pressure issues.
Participants in this class will learn to be the ultimate air leakage sleuths by practicing pro-level skills for balancing heating systems, solving air leakage mysteries, and avoiding dangerous combustion problems. This will be an intensive 2.5 days of manometer mayhem that will help participants perform audits, lead crews, and do Quality Control Inspector (QCI) inspections at a new level.
Course Learning Outcomes: Upon Course Completion, the student will learn how to:
Review basic whole house building science concepts of air and energy transfer
Learn advanced zone pressure diagnostics techniques
Learn about combustion appliance zones and the effect of air pressure on these zones
Learn about ventilation principles
Learn how to measure flow in ventilation systems and HVAC systems
Montana Weatherization Network members may take this course, and any relevant exam(s), at no cost. Use the MT WAP Registration option to register with a $0 fee.For questions, contact the Training Center at classes@weatherization.org or 406-586-0070. To return to Montana Weatherization Training Center website please go to weatherization.org.
Optimizing Residential Forced-Air HVAC Systems: Efficiency, Comfort and Low Loss Duct Systems
Improved design, installation and commissioning practices lead to a dramatic improvement in building energy consumption, indoor air quality, and comfort. There are six performance factors that can be applied to HVAC design, installation and/or commissioning. In the Optimizing Residential Forced-Air series, we will review how each factor can be specified at design, implemented during installation, and tested/adjusted during commissioning. We will also look at how we can redesign our approach to high performance HVAC systems to support CA climate goals, help manage the peak electrical load on the grid as well as the owners operating cost under the time-of-use billing structure.
The Optimizing Residential Forced-Air series is informed through commissioned systems, where real examples from completed projects are used to support class content. We have designed, built, and commissioned both retrofit and new construction projects that exemplify the concepts covered in class. Course content will include design examples, photos installations, and test results from commissioning.
The HVAC equipment, materials and knowledge required to dramatically improve the performance of HVAC systems is readily available. This class will assist the designer, installer, and rater in their efforts to improve the HVAC systems we build.
Instructor Bio
Dan Perunko
Dan Perunko is cofounder of Balance Point Home Performance Company. In 2006, along with Gavin Healy, Dan started a successful company providing full service home performance analysis, retrofits, consultations, and trainings. Dan works on new and existing construction designs and hands on installations of enclosures, mechanical, plumbing, and indoor air quality components based on tested performance outcomes. Dan especially enjoys improving existing homes to provide homeowners with levels of comfort and energy consumption that they have not believed possible. Dan is a professional trainer who designs and delivers full and multi day courses for California’s utility companies (energy training centers) and ACI national and regional conferences. Dan brings his experience from construction, design and building analysis, to make his class materials relevant, useful and understandable regardless of the attendees’ level of experience.
Agenda
Agenda:
Introduction and safety message
Duct Leakage
How much leakage is the right amount
Air quality consequence
Energy usage consequence
How tight can a duct system be
Industry performance, your chance to shine
How to seal effectively
How to motivate the crew
Duct Conduction
How much energy do ducts lose through conduction?
Duct location and insulation strategies
Simulating ducts in conditioned space
Using multiple small footprint duct systems to reduce conduction losses
System Airflow
Low air flow volume effects duct conduction losses
System Capacity
System Capacity targets for CA systems
Typical System Capacities CA systems
System Capacity and duct leakage
System Capacity and duct conduction
System Capacity drivers that impact poor system airflow
Objectives
The objective of this course is that at the conclusion, participants will be able to:
Describe typical duct leakage in CA systems
Recognize the importance of performance targets for low leakage duct systems
Summarize the typical system capacity losses resulting from duct conduction
Outline four key strategies for reducing duct conduction losses
Detail the mechanism that cause energy loss in low airflow systems
Compare typical equipment sizing versus performance equipment sizing
Review the energy losses resulting from typical oversized system capacities
2024 BUILDRIGHT CONFERENCE PRESENTED BY ENERGY TRUST OF OREGON
NEW LOCATION! The Factor Building in The Central Eastside Industrial District
226 SE Madison Street
Portland, OR 97214
NEW LOCATION for 2024!
Join us at The Factor Building in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District.
BuildRight is the Pacific NW’s premiere annual residential building science conference and expo. BuildRight brings builders, HVAC, design and industry professionals together to discuss advancements in energy-efficient building practices and workforce development in residential new construction and remodeling. 2024 BuildRight Conference + Expo takes place April 18 + 19, 2024 and features new partners and expanded programing including two keynote speakers and two-days of quality content and dynamic sessions!
Attendees have the opportunity to earn required CCB credits at BuildRight. For more information, visit our website at www.BuildRightpdx.com or contact Carol Eisenlohr, HBA Greater Portland’s Building Science Consultant at 503-710-2910 or email carole@hbapdx.org.
Earn CCB and RESNET credits on April 18 & 19 while learning more about:
• High performance building practices and innovations
• Energy efficiency technologies and practices: HVAC, air sealing, EPS™, zero energy ready and more
• Building code updates
• Smart home technology – comfort, quality, security & enjoyment
2024 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Allison Bailes
is the author of a bestselling book on residential building science (A House Needs to Breathe… Or Does It?) and the founder of Energy Vanguard, a building science firm and BPI Test Center located in Decatur, Georgia. The company’s focus is on residential HVAC design, consulting, and training. Dr. Bailes has a PhD in physics from the University of Florida and has been involved with the field of building science since 2001, when he built a highperformance home out of structural insulated panels.
Mark LaLiberte
is the co-founder and president of Construction Instruction. He has dedicated over 30 years to the building industry. Through his lectures,site assistance, Building Better Homes video series and his mobile App, he provides builders, architects and manufacturers with an in-depth look at the current and future state of housing. His work has earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA), where he developed the highly acclaimed Houses that Work lecture series. The HTW Series has been delivered for over 16 years by the Ci team in 100’s of North American cities.
All current members of the Oregon Home Builders Association or the Building Industry of Washington qualify for member pricing. Email info@hbapdx.org to get a promo code before you register to receive member pricing.
