BuildingEnergy Boston 2020 Conference Sessions
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Building In & Building Out: Lessons Learned from Deep Energy Retrofits Maine Passive House (MPH) has used two different strategies in retrofitting existing homes. One strategy involves adding insulation to the outside of the building; the other strategy is to add insulation to... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily Retrofit Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science |
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Consumer Pathways to Decarbonization Consumers are the ultimate decision makers in home decarbonization. Transitioning the millions of existing residential buildings in the northeast to high-efficiency electric systems and implementing... Full Description |
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Explore the Possibilities for Your Property with National Grid's Energy Solutions Sponsored by National Grid. Join Marie Raphael, EV Charging Stations Program Manager, and Daniel Sancomb, Senior C&I Energy Efficiency Representative, to learn about the dozens of ways your business can... Full Description |
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ASHPs and VRF: How About These HFC Refrigerants? SPONSORED BY DAIKIN - Most ASHPs and VRF systems in the US use R-410A, a well-known HFC refrigerant. In this session we will cover the basics of refrigerants and their role in the refrigerant cycle, and in... Full Description |
Mechanical System and Lighting |
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A German Perspective on Building Energy Sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German American Chamber of Commerce in New York ... Full Description |
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Rethink Water Heating SPONSORED BY EEMAX - This session is designed for archictects, engineers, facility managers, contractors, and builders and will address the challenge in finding the right balance between performance and... Full Description |
Mechanical System and Lighting Codes |
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Refrigerants A-Z: Chemistry, Safety, & Environment SPONSORED BY DAIKIN - The need to electrify our built environment by integrating Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs) and Variable Refrigerant (VRF) systems is clear. Most ASHPs and VRF systems in the US use R-... Full Description |
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Refrigerant Roundtable SPONSORED BY DAIKIN. Join JS Rancourt, the Principal of DXS Engingeering for a roundtable discussion all about refrigerants. Bring your questions, issues you've encountered, and new ideas. This will be a... Full Description |
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2020 Keynote Address - Becoming Transformative Placemakers We are honored to have the Reverend Mariama White-Hammond providing the keynote address for BuilidngEnergy Boston 2020. Her talk will... Full Description |
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Tepid Water SPONSORED BY EEMAX - Tepid Water is directed to the commercial safety eye wash, face wash and drench shower systems (labs, schools, medical, manufacturing, chemicals). Considering the vast number of... Full Description |
Mechanical System and Lighting Health and Comfort Codes |
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We're Still Green at Being Green! Lessons Learned on the Path In today's climate crisis, it's imperative to change the way we design and build in order to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions. However, some of these changes to building design can introduce... Full Description |
Commercial Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Materials |
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Solar & Storage: Making Commercial Retrofits Pay Off in Massachusetts We will present new analyses showing how commercial facilities in Massachusetts (and beyond) can maximize energy savings and resiliency by installing solar + electric storage systems. We will review and... Full Description |
Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Energy Production and Storage Policy Finance |
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Air Source Heat Pumps: Design & Equipment Selection in 2020 From retrofitting a ranch built in the ’40s to conditioning massive multi-family Passive House developments, air source heat pumps are being selected as the primary method to heat and cool an ever-growing... Full Description |
Single Family New Construction Retrofit Mechanical System and Lighting |
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Scalable Multifamily Retrofits: Case Studies from Energiesprong & Two US Practitioners Energiesprong and practitioners selected by RetrofitNY are developing standardized and scalable methods to achieve whole-building near-zero energy retrofits while maintaining multifamily tenants in place.... Full Description |
Multifamily Retrofit Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Energy Production and Storage Policy Finance |
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Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: How We Achieve Massive Home-scale Climate Actions Urgent climate goals require state programs such as Mass Save to better target comprehensive decarbonization – applying efficiency, electrification, demand response, and solar+storage – in an equitable... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily Retrofit Cities, Communities, Place Standards in Action* Policy Finance |
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Moving the ‘Masses’ toward Taller Timber Construction: Codes, Design Steps & Environmental Impacts We are at an exciting confluence in timber construction. The need for sustainable, urban construction has never been higher. As members of the AEC industry, it is our responsibility to understand and... Full Description |
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Using District-Scale Heating to Accelerate Building Decarbonization & Resilience District Energy has proven to be a resilient energy source able to lower carbon emissions in major cities and worthy of expansion. In this session, you’ll learn about strategies to govern district energy... Full Description |
Institutional Mechanical System and Lighting Energy Production and Storage Policy |
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Finally Fossil-Fuel-Free: Air-to-Water Heat Pump & Ventilation Retrofit Air-to-water heat pumps have generated a lot of excitement for their enormous retrofit potential. This case study details one home’s retrofit to an AWHP system, which was developed by hydronics experts to... Full Description |
Single Family Design and Construction Process Mechanical System and Lighting Health and Comfort |
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Accounting for the Embodied Carbon of Residential Retrofits This is a tale of two companies on a quest to account for the embodied carbon impacts of energy retrofits, and to incorporate these impacts into the project planning process. How do we decide when embodied... Full Description |
Single Family Retrofit Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Materials |
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Exhaust Fans for Building Ventilation: Improve IAQ & Reduce Moisture Problems One of the most important measures in weatherization is adding building ventilation for removing indoor pollutants and maintaining good Indoor air quality. Learn about different types of ventilation fans,... Full Description |
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Smart Affordable Housing through Passive House & Habitat for Humanity Builders and developers, whether public or private, can learn from the success of Columbia County NY Habitat for Humanity, which uses Passive House methods to provide high-quality, healthy, and affordable... Full Description |
Single Family New Construction Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Standards in Action* |
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Extreme Makeover: The Plainfield NH Elementary School This small New Hampshire town was faced with a host of issues with its 35,000 sf school. Key areas included IAQ problems, lack of temperature control, obsolete HVAC equipment, and high energy bills. A small... Full Description |
Institutional Retrofit Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Health and Comfort |
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Scalable Solutions to Triple Decker Retrofits Triple-decker homes, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to house immigrant workers, are an important New England housing resource. However, their energy performance is typically poor: they are... Full Description |
Multifamily Retrofit Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Health and Comfort Cities, Communities, Place |
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Building Solar Equity: An Ecosystem Approach to a More Inclusive Renewable Energy Future Strategic investment in renewable energy has the potential to address two of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change and growing inequality. It’s possible to source, finance, develop and... Full Description |
Resiliency Cities, Communities, Place Policy Finance |
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Monitoring Energy Performance & IAQ: Multifamily Energy Star vs. PHIUS+ This session will explore both high level monitoring protocols and in-depth performance results of energy and indoor environmental quality measurement within PHIUS+ multi-family buildings to outline... Full Description |
New Construction Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Health and Comfort Standards in Action* |
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Sustainability Roadmap: Leading Organizational Change The future of our planet depends on our ability to innovate, co-create collaboratively, and achieve levels of synergy that transform. Certification programs define objective performance targets, yet a gap... Full Description |
Business Practice |
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Reducing Embodied Carbon in Building Materials: How Local Governments Can Help The purpose of this session is three-fold: To educate attendees about what embodied carbon is and how it's different from operational carbon. To discuss why reducing it is significant for global warming... Full Description |
Multifamily Commercial Institutional Building Envelope, Building Science Materials Codes Policy |
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Passive House Ventilation: Humidity Considerations in Multifamily Residential Buildings The Passive House concept continues to scale up in North America, in both number and size of projects. Passive House buildings benefit from airtight construction, as minimizing winter infiltration directly... Full Description |
Multifamily Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting |
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Seeking Perfection in Air-Sealing The invention of the blower door was an important step in minimizing thermal losses from buildings. By depressurizing the envelope and using tracer smoke, we can find the air leaks and seal them. A new... Full Description |
Building Envelope, Building Science Materials |
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Transforming an Old Building into a Passive NZE House, Office & Community Classroom This session will discuss the process of transforming an old masonry building in Newton MA into a PHIUS-certified net-zero office space and educational center for high-performance design and construction.... Full Description |
Commercial Retrofit Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Materials Energy Production and Storage Health and Comfort |
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'We Went LED' is Not Sufficient: The Place of Lighting in Our Low-Carbon Future We're over ten years into the LED revolution, but mythology still motivates decision-making. Energy professionals need to know that "let's just go LED” leads to sub-optimal results. LED efficiency varies... Full Description |
Multifamily Commercial Institutional Mechanical System and Lighting |
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Hempcrete 201: Take It to the Next Level with a Natural, Carbon-Beneficial Material Join the growing community of radically responsible industry stewards using Hempcrete, a bio-composite material created from the woody core of the hemp plant combined with a lime-based binder. Trusted... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily Retrofit Building Envelope, Building Science Materials Health and Comfort Codes |
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What's So Different about Designing & Building Multi-Family Passive House? There’s been a surge in interest in Passive House multi-family new construction in the Northeast. So what kind of differences are we really talking about from conventional projects? Can we educate our... Full Description |
Multifamily New Construction Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Standards in Action* |
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Testing Intuition: Re-evaluating Transformative Reuse Projects As architects, designers, builders, and community advocates, we value the adaptive reuse of buildings, but lack data to verify our design choices. We often operate on intuition to choose what to reuse and... Full Description |
Commercial Institutional Retrofit Design and Construction Process Materials |
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Embodied Carbon in Materials: Real Steps to Drawing Down Carbon in our Buildings This session will provide concrete tools and answers on how to draw down carbon in our buildings starting today. We’ll focus on low-rise buildings, where most new construction and renovations happen and... Full Description |
New Construction Retrofit Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Materials Resiliency Standards in Action* |
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Let’s Get Real: How the City of Boston Will Mandate Zero Carbon Buildings for New Development Jurisdictions throughout the NESEA region and beyond are actively pursuing the decarbonization of new and existing buildings. Through legislation, executive action, and performance goals in the building... Full Description |
Multifamily Commercial Institutional Cities, Communities, Place Standards in Action* Codes Policy |
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Expanding Access to Clean Energy in Affordable Housing Solar, energy efficiency, Passive House – these are the tools of the clean energy transition. But who are these tools for and who can afford them? Owners, developers, and residents of affordable housing in... Full Description |
Multifamily New Construction Health and Comfort Cities, Communities, Place Policy |
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To Electrify or Not to Electrify...? Should we be trying to electrify everything? Is it practical for existing and new buildings with the technologies we have now? Two engineers with different takes on these questions will debate electrifying... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily New Construction Retrofit Mechanical System and Lighting |
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Home Energy Labeling: The New Granite Countertops of Real Estate If insulation, air sealing, performance testing, and high-efficiency HVAC systems were as exciting to home buyers as granite countertops and walk-in closets, the demand for energy-efficient homes and energy... Full Description |
Single Family Building Envelope, Building Science Health and Comfort Standards in Action* Policy Finance |
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The Last Frontier: Solutions for Fossil-Fuel-Free Domestic Hot Water Natural gas moratoriums, consumer demand for fossil-fuel-free homes, Passive House standards: these are among the many reasons why people are increasingly opting for domestic hot water systems powered by... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily Mechanical System and Lighting |
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Public Life in the Connected Electrified Future What will the push to “electrify everything” mean for the future of our cities and communities? This panel explores developing trends in the electrification of transportation and buildings with a focus on... Full Description |
Commercial Institutional Mechanical System and Lighting Energy Production and Storage Cities, Communities, Place |
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Net Zero Montpelier: A Municipal Case Study Five years ago, the capital city of Montpelier, Vermont, set a bold and audacious goal: for the city’s municipal buildings and operations to be Net Zero by 2030. What can a small city (under 7,000 people)... Full Description |
Retrofit Resiliency Energy Production and Storage Cities, Communities, Place Finance |
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Three Residential Zero Net Energy Renovations: Ten (or so) Years On What have we learned about the experience of living in a deep energy renovated home? Come hear 3 pioneers in the deep energy renovation space talk about what it was like to create and now live in a zero net... Full Description |
Single Family Retrofit Building Envelope, Building Science Mechanical System and Lighting Energy Production and Storage Health and Comfort Policy |
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Climate Justice Is Social Justice: How We Win We need to win! We are faced with the mortal challenge of saving ourselves and our planet in a short handful of years. To address such a complex problem as human-driven climate change, we need complex... Full Description |
Cities, Communities, Place |
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Energy Grid of the Future Come hear the results of the “Grid of the Future” pilot program, which offered Maine homeowners a discount on smart appliances (heat pumps, water heaters, smart EV chargers, and batteries) in exchange for... Full Description |
Single Family Energy Production and Storage Health and Comfort |
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Zero Energy Buildings in Massachusetts: Saving Money from the Start The number one obstacle to Zero Energy (ZE) buildings is the perception of increased cost. This session will debunk this myth. Utilizing readily available products, practices and technologies, Zero Energy... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily Institutional Design and Construction Process Building Envelope, Building Science Policy Finance |
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Multifamily Central Ventilation: A Tale of Two Cities Central ventilation systems in multifamily buildings are a vital building system with significant implications for energy, sustainability and occupant health and safety. In this session, we compare and... Full Description |
Multifamily New Construction Retrofit Design and Construction Process Mechanical System and Lighting Health and Comfort |
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Addressing Climate Resiliency: One Institutional Green Roof at a Time As climate unpredictability swells, institutions are exploring a variety of solutions that invest in long-term climate resiliency. Increased precipitation, along with hotter, drier summers mean higher rates... Full Description |
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Heat Pump Retrofits: Integrated Controls or Stand-Alone Solutions? States across the region are setting ambitious heat pump targets to support their climate goals. But what will it look like to retrofit millions of homes with heat pumps as the primary heat source? This... Full Description |
Single Family Retrofit Design and Construction Process Mechanical System and Lighting Policy |
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Unvented Roofs without Spray Foam: The Rest of the Story Back in 2016, our team started a multiyear experiment, sponsored by Building America, on unvented roofs without spray foam or exterior rigid insulation, using an instrumented test hut with multiple test... Full Description |
Single Family Multifamily New Construction Retrofit Building Envelope, Building Science |
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