BuildingEnergy Boston 2023 Evaluations
Thank you for joining us at BuildingEnergy Boston 2023. Please help us continue to improve this event:
- Evaluate the entire conference here.
- Evaluate the sessions you attended below.
NESEA staff will share your feedback with next year’s conference planning committee to guide the design and content of BuildingEnergy Boston 2024. Questions? Contact Ben Sachs-Hamilton, Conference Director, at bsachs-hamilton@nesea.org.
Tuesday
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Tuesday Keynote — Revolutionary Codes: Bringing Net-Zero to ScaleTuesday Keynote — Revolutionary Codes: Bringing Net-Zero to ScaleThis community has spent decades laying the groundwork for net-zero-energy buildings. Now we stand at an exciting turning point, as the technologies and approaches we have long fought for are beginning to enter the mainstream and even be written into building codes. The 2023 Massachusetts Stretch Code makes ultra-low-energy buildings mandatory, and functions as the platform for net-zero and fossil-fuel-free regulations for forward-thinking cities and towns throughout the state. This is a moment worth celebrating, as well as an opportunity to spark similar initiatives in other states, and... Full Description |
9:00 am to 10:00 am |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Addressing Racism and Subtle Acts of Exclusion in the Design and Construction WorkplaceAddressing Racism and Subtle Acts of Exclusion in the Design and Construction WorkplaceExpanding our workforce by meaningful inclusion and retention of people from marginalized groups will be critical to scale our work. We have all heard statements, jokes, and questions in the workplace that make us cringe, but we may not have the skills to respond constructively in the moment. This session will offer tools to engage with these subtle acts of exclusion and focus on learning skills from real examples from job sites and office environments. Core principles such as intent vs. impact, acknowledging our own biases, and recognizing micro-aggressions will be explored. |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Commitment to Learning: A Case Study of Three Public SchoolsCommitment to Learning: A Case Study of Three Public SchoolsPublic school projects are a highly visible commitment from a community towards future generations, serve a wide range of students from diverse backgrounds, and are a valuable resource to the surrounding community. This case study will show three projects that aimed to fit within the goals and budget of a public institution while focusing equally on energy, carbon, water, and waste. Linking the strategies for each goal to impacts on the health and well-being of students provides a new framework for evaluating the impacts of design. |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Heat Pump Design Challenges in Larger Buildings: Air-to-Air VRF or Air-to-Water HydronicHeat Pump Design Challenges in Larger Buildings: Air-to-Air VRF or Air-to-Water HydronicElectrification of HVAC systems and the elimination of fossil fuel heating in high rise building space conditioning systems poses unique design and system selection challenges. Presenters will share two case studies for the design of VRF HVAC, one using air-to-air systems and one using air-to-water systems. They will discuss challenges including maximum piping lengths, acoustical restrictions, and airflow problems, and solutions including closely spaced condensers using CFD analysis and the design of access to piping and wiring in large condenser farms. Case studies will be followed by an... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Scaling Low Carbon Market Transformation for Building ProductsScaling Low Carbon Market Transformation for Building ProductsOperational carbon is challenging but attacking embodied carbon is a complete nightmare! How can firms streamline the deadly research drain and get compliance across all teams for low carbon, healthy material choices? Owners, how can you set and ensure compliance with your standards when onboarding design teams? Builders, how can you leverage your buying power to accelerate market transformation through aggregation without having to change any behavior? This session addresses behavior change & process, and introduces a free new tool to streamline all of these actions and remove... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Zero Energy Modular at Scale: Factories, Builders, and Design Professionals WantedZero Energy Modular at Scale: Factories, Builders, and Design Professionals WantedVEIC’s work on Zero Energy Modular (ZEM) homes has helped hundreds of low and moderate income families achieve dignified, resilient, low-carbon housing. Over the past decade, we’ve partnered with five factories and countless funding partners and lending institutions to make this happen. The need is growing, not fading—for workforce housing, farmworker housing, Accessory Dwelling Units, mobile home replacement, affordable housing communities (single- and multifamily), and more. The problem? The ZEM model does not scale well within the current paradigm. Building on our experience in this... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Accelerating Building Decarbonization with Tariffed On-Bill FinancingAccelerating Building Decarbonization with Tariffed On-Bill FinancingImagine your utility told you they wanted to invest in state-of-the-art technology for your home or business. No taking on debt, and no matter if you're a renter. Your obligation? Paying a monthly tariff on your electric bill no greater than the resulting energy savings. The tariff would extend only until the utility recovers its investment, and if you move, would simply transfer to the next occupant. This session will present results of a business, technical, and consumer feasibility study of tariffed on-bill (TOB) financing by the Ipswich Electric Light Department and plans for... Full Description |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Driving Down Carbon in Concrete: From One Project to the MainstreamDriving Down Carbon in Concrete: From One Project to the MainstreamConcrete accounts for approximately 11% of annual global carbon emissions. It is a material too important to ignore. Learn how BU’s Center for Computing and Data Sciences applied low-carbon concrete goals and selected structural elements to reach the highest Portland replacement concrete in Boston to date. See how opportunities in design, construction and supply chain were used to substantially decrease the climate impact of concrete used. Then discover national and local low-carbon material initiatives that are underway and growing. Find out how you can participate in moving policy... Full Description |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Fundamentals of Functional FlashingFundamentals of Functional FlashingThe vast majority of construction defect litigation is over failures of water management. As we construct lower and lower energy buildings, we’re reducing their physical ability to withstand a little “whoopsy” with your water barriers. We’ll go through the fundamentals and the physics in presentation format, then share hands-on demonstrations of old and new methods that really work. You’re guaranteed to learn something that can be applied to your projects immediately. |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Hotel Marcel: The Only Passive House Certified HotelHotel Marcel: The Only Passive House Certified HotelBruce Becker is the architect, developer, owner, and operator of Hotel Marcel. He will discuss the conversion of the formerly vacant Pirelli Building in New Haven into Hotel Marcel, a 165-room LEED Platinum all-electric boutique hotel and conference center which is the first Passive House certified hotel in the United States. The discussion will include electrification (no fossil fuels including 100% of HVAC, hot water, kitchen, and laundry), power over Ethernet (POE) for all Lighting and Shades, and micro-grid creation for resilience with 1 megawatt-hour of battery storage. He will also... Full Description |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Tales from the Trenches: Passive House Ventilation Commissioning RoadblocksTales from the Trenches: Passive House Ventilation Commissioning RoadblocksWe will present tales from the trenches for ventilation approaches within the context of the Passive House building certification standard. This standard has set a high benchmark for low-energy buildings and is widely known as the most rigorous energy efficiency standard currently available. Attendees will learn how balanced ventilation is best applied in a cold climate at a large scale and how commissioning plays a key role in this process. This discussion will draw from the experiences of commissioning ERV/HRV systems in Passive House projects and demonstrate the various execution paths... Full Description |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Climate Equity is Right Under Our Feet: Ground Source Heat Pumps and Community Thermal NetworksClimate Equity is Right Under Our Feet: Ground Source Heat Pumps and Community Thermal NetworksRecent technology developments and incentive programs are creating new opportunities for ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) at the building and neighborhood scale (networked geothermal). Practitioners designing and piloting GSHPs will describe how GSHPs can reduce the environmental burden on LMI communities by decarbonizing space and water heating. Through design and case studies, they will describe what characteristics make a building or neighborhood a promising fit for GSHP implementation, and those posing significant challenges. Participate and see if GSHPs could be a good fit for your... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
Electrification Journeys: How Two Companies Decarbonized Their Manufacturing ProcessesElectrification Journeys: How Two Companies Decarbonized Their Manufacturing ProcessesElectrifying the manufacturing process of building materials is a critical step towards decarbonizing the built environment. Going where no companies have gone before, two leading edge companies share their journey to reduce the carbon impact of their product. Each will tell their story on their path to decarbonizing their manufacturing process. This is the prologue, and the episode continues as they stretch their goals. The presenting companies are Glavel, Inc., a foam glass gravel manufacturer out of Burlington, VT, and Timber HP, a wood fiber insulation manufacturer located in Madison,... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
Energy Storage in High Performance BuildingsEnergy Storage in High Performance BuildingsBefore PVs became affordable, excess solar energy was stored thermally. Energy storage, both thermal and electrical, aids grid penetration of renewables and builds resilience on-site. We’ll look at passive and active thermal storage in advanced buildings, either integrated with the structure or as remote storage. We’ll also look at battery storage in an off-grid project and hydronic storage in a proposed small commercial project and show via an interactive model the effects of varying PV and storage capacity, and how storage increases the percentage of solar energy used on-site. Lastly, we... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
Reaching Net Zero Carbon through Building Energy CodesReaching Net Zero Carbon through Building Energy CodesWhile the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) is already being used by some states, wider adoption is anticipated with the initiation of DOE’s Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation (RECI) program. This session highlights key changes in the IECC and identifies 2024 proposals that will have the biggest impact on reaching emission goals. The presenters will explore the relationship between required codes and voluntary standards, as well as the adoption status of Model Code and Stretch Code in Massachusetts, New York State and New York City. |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Leveraging Federal and State Incentives for Building DecarbonizationLeveraging Federal and State Incentives for Building DecarbonizationWhile recent state legislation across the region has codified ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in statute, these bills have had a clear lack of funding to address the massive capital investment needed. The tide may now be turning, however, with the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the implementation of significant state-level incentives, such as those laid out in Massachusetts' new energy efficiency triennial plan. This session will review the emerging funding landscape and identify effective strategies to leverage and stack these various incentives. |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm | ||
Pretty Good House: A Guide to Creating Better HomesPretty Good House: A Guide to Creating Better HomesHave you heard about the building standard that's not a standard? Learn how to create energy efficient, healthy, sustainable homes with an emphasis on making the concepts and technical details accessible to builders and designers of all levels of development. Two of the four co-authors of the Pretty Good House Book will go through the essential elements of what makes a Pretty Good House and share how it can help make low-carbon energy efficiency more accessible to contractors, designers, and clients. This session would be appropriate for the novice to moderately advanced design and... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm | ||
Scalable Ground Source Heat Pump Systems: Mass. Maritime Academy Case StudyScalable Ground Source Heat Pump Systems: Mass. Maritime Academy Case StudyThe Massachusetts Maritime Academy consists of 16 buildings comprising approximately 600,000 sf, with heating for the buildings is provided by gas fired hot water boilers in each. They have undertaken a planning effort and initial design for a distributed campus-wide ground source heat pump system, combined with extensive energy retrofits. The plan consists of a neutral temperature Energy Transfer Loop that will tie various geo-exchange systems together to feed heat pump plants in each building. The proposed system is flexible, scalable and easily phased, and provides a model that can be... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm | ||
The Results are In: Lessons Learned from Post Occupancy Data in Multifamily Passive HousesThe Results are In: Lessons Learned from Post Occupancy Data in Multifamily Passive HousesCurtis + Ginsberg Architects has completed 6 multifamily Passive House buildings, with two more in construction and six more in design. Steven Winter Associates has completed over 20 Passive House buildings, with 15 more in construction and 30+ more in design. We have collaborated on many of these projects. By reviewing variations in the systems, we can draw conclusions about what works best for structure, envelope, ventilation strategy, heating and cooling systems, and on-site generation. We will present the details of at least 12 buildings, what we have learned, and how they are... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm |
Wednesday
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Wednesday Keynote — Why We Stopped Doing Deep Energy RetrofitsWednesday Keynote — Why We Stopped Doing Deep Energy RetrofitsAfter completing many Deep Energy Retrofit projects (DERs) in the late 2000s early 2010s here in Massachusetts, our residential design-build remodeling company's approach to energy retrofit work has shifted towards lighter envelope improvements and a greater focus on getting homes off of on site fossil fuel consumption. While the DER approach was successful in substantially reducing energy consumption, among other improvements, it often came at a high cost both in terms of our clients investment and the embodied carbon impact of the work itself. In this presentation we will make the case... Full Description |
9:00 am to 10:00 am |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Building Relationships: Community Ambassadors and AdvisorsBuilding Relationships: Community Ambassadors and AdvisorsResearch has shown that solar adoption in a neighborhood spurs more solar adoption. Conversely, if clean energy adoption is not seeded in other communities, these communities lose out on the benefits of clean energy. This panel will provide lessons learned and best practices for using the community coach/ambassador/advisor model to promote clean energy in underserved communities. Speakers will talk about addressing language barriers and building trust. Panelists will also discuss how their programs comprehensively address barriers to clean energy adoption, for example by providing... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Carbon Storing Buildings: A Gateway to Justice and BelongingCarbon Storing Buildings: A Gateway to Justice and BelongingJoin principals of New Frameworks and Builders for Climate Action for a critical look at our practices that have endeavored to embed justice and belonging alongside the highest goals for building health, efficiency, and carbon storage in projects - for the purpose of workshopping how our industry can scale carbon storage and justice, rapidly, to address climate justice. From organizational structure to project development to design details, we will provide an honest look at our development so as to ask and answer the question with our colleagues - what can we learn from our mistakes and... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Global Adaptation of Passive House: Culture, Climate and ChallengesGlobal Adaptation of Passive House: Culture, Climate and ChallengesWith rising determination to fight the climate crisis worldwide, practitioners are finding the Passive House standard a potent solution for the building sector. As passive and other sustainable building standards are proliferating worldwide, those standards meet a host of different location-specific challenges. This diverse panel of women architects and certified Passive House consultants are seeking to understand the adaptation of the Passive House standard globally. Through recorded interviews with practitioners around the world, they will highlight how some principles and modeling... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Heads in Beds: the Colby College Hyper-Speed Dormitory ProjectHeads in Beds: the Colby College Hyper-Speed Dormitory ProjectTypical university dormitory projects are capital intensive and take several years to complete. This project turned this practice on its head. Using modular construction, on-site precast foundations, an integrated design-build team and low-embodied-carbon materials in a holistic approach, Colby College housed students as quickly as possible while ensuring the highest standards of beauty, accessibility, energy consumption, and healthy materials. Design started in September 2021, and students moved in in August 2022. The solutions we present will show other teams how to implement these... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm | ||
Windows and Fenestration: Basics and BeyondWindows and Fenestration: Basics and BeyondWindows are a key part of the building enclosure, but they are also the costliest, most fragile, and worst thermally performing component. We will present on windows from our viewpoint as building enclosure consultants and forensic failure specialists. We will explore energy and comfort impacts of glazing and glazing ratios, and then move on to water control detailing and the window-to-wall interface. Covered topics will include sill pan and rough opening flashings, “innie” vs. “outie” windows in thick walls, two-stage joints and drainage, air barrier detailing, condensation problems, and... Full Description |
10:30 am to 12:00 pm |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Creating Healthy, Decarbonized ClassroomsCreating Healthy, Decarbonized ClassroomsMany classroom environments are unhealthy and uncomfortable, creating poor learning environments with high absenteeism. Older, unventilated classrooms can be economically decarbonized with improved air quality and comfort. This session will present the conversion of a junior high school classroom, featuring a "rolling" room-by-room installation process using a community's local HVAC installation labor with one day of classroom downtime. We will examine before-and-after indoor air quality and comfort data from the converted classroom, as well as health, energy and cost information for... Full Description |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Pushing the Glass Envelope: A BERDO 2.0 Compliance Pathway for a High Performance BuildingPushing the Glass Envelope: A BERDO 2.0 Compliance Pathway for a High Performance BuildingThis session offers a case study of a curtainwall building in which the project team collaborated on an iterative energy modeling and design process to achieve aggressive energy reduction goals. Our panel will share insight on the process that led to significant energy and carbon reductions, predictive versus post occupancy usage data, and how this building will adapt to BERDO 2.0 and future energy and resilience considerations – a challenge facing recently constructed buildings that will need to decarbonize in the near future in Boston. |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Retrofitting Existing Buildings into Low-Carbon AssetsRetrofitting Existing Buildings into Low-Carbon AssetsRetrofitting buildings to reduce operating emissions is a key climate strategy. Viable, affordable, and scalable strategies must be implemented. However, we must avoid a surge of embodied carbon emissions from the manufacturing of building materials. This presentation showcases research and case studies evaluating the embodied carbon investment of varying retrofit assembly strategies and construction methodologies in cold climates with the expected operational carbon savings. We will hold an introductory how-to workshop on low embodied carbon approaches that exist today. With this... Full Description |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Size and Selection Matter: Using New Data and Tools to Design Effective Heat Pump SystemsSize and Selection Matter: Using New Data and Tools to Design Effective Heat Pump SystemsThink you know effective heat pump sizing and design? Significant market growth of cold-climate air-source heat pumps has resulted in new insights and lessons learned. Come explore new tools and best practices to enable improved design, sizing, and selection of ASHPs in this session with NEEP and Abode, and stay on the leading edge! |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | ||
Touch a Trade: Inspiring The Next Generation WorkforceTouch a Trade: Inspiring The Next Generation WorkforceOn October 22, 2022 we held the inaugural Touch A Trade event in Kent, CT. The goal of this event was to introduce pre-teen and teenage children to various trades via hands-on experiences. This first event attracted nearly 500 participants, exceeding projected attendance and demonstrating the value of similar future events. This session will focus on our planning process, outcomes, and feedback from presenters and visitors alike, and appraise the value of the Touch a Trade event as a viable workforce development strategy to be scaled in other communities. |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
Electrification of Domestic Hot Water in Multifamily BuildingsElectrification of Domestic Hot Water in Multifamily BuildingsMethods for electrification of DHW in multifamily buildings all pose challenges. This session will provide an overview of existing technologies and a brief history of how we arrived at central air-source heat pump technology as the least problematic solution today. We will use recent design-phase case studies to illustrate cost, estimated energy use, mechanical space requirements, system and equipment peculiarities, metering strategies, maintenance requirements, what we’d like to learn from systems as they’re installed, and why the alternatives for electrification of DHW are even worse!... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
Green Jobs Training: What Works? What Doesn't?Green Jobs Training: What Works? What Doesn't?The global implications of climate change require immediate local action, with a major priority being to have a well-trained green workforce to meet the growing labor needs. Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Boston, alongside various community partners, piloted the Bridges to Green Jobs program in early 2021 to make clean energy industry jobs accessible to Black and Brown residents. Utilizing the lessons learned from the first three cohorts, we discuss the successes and challenges, and welcome meaningful engagement for improvements, looking ahead to an equitable and sustainable... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
How Will You Meet the Demand? Scaling Passive House Certification for the New Energy Code How Will You Meet the Demand? Scaling Passive House Certification for the New Energy CodeWith the coming updates to building energy codes, there is an anticipation of growth in the volume of Passive House buildings. It is important to have a fully scalable approach to successfully guide teams from scope development through certification. This session will give a “behind the scenes” look into the process and demonstrate how to best handle the expansion of Passive House projects with a look at the perspective of the project manager, the energy modeler and the PHIUS verifier. |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
New England’s Favorite Roof Retrofit: Moisture Data from Three MA Case StudiesNew England’s Favorite Roof Retrofit: Moisture Data from Three MA Case StudiesDense packing cellulose in roof slopes has been a common insulation retrofit strategy in New England for a long time, however technically it has not been allowed by code without the inclusion of venting or foam insulation at the roof sheathing for condensation control. Previous BuildingEnergy presentations have suggested that further research should be done to evaluate whether vented attic space above unvented dense-packed slopes could manage moisture more effectively than insulating all the way up to the ridge. Byggmeister and Building Science Corp have collected 2 years of monitoring... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm | ||
The Path to Emergency Electric: Lessons from the KenziThe Path to Emergency Electric: Lessons from the KenziPassive House buildings go hand-in-hand with on-site generation and electrification, but what happens when you have code-required emergency power backup? The Kenzi tackled the wicked problem of designing, pricing, and permitting the first all-electric building above four floors in the City of Boston. We will dive into the nitty gritty of design, funding, and procurement, reveal our strategy for Boston Fire Department concerns, and discuss what code language we leaned on to pull it all together. The session will share why the owner and design team felt this seemingly insurmountable task was... Full Description |
2:30 pm to 3:30 pm |
| Session Title | Time | Speakers | |
|---|---|---|---|
A Necessary Evolution: Three Companies Instigate Change via Offsite ConstructionA Necessary Evolution: Three Companies Instigate Change via Offsite ConstructionTo achieve mass adoption of offsite construction, the building process as we know it has to be reevaluated from multiple perspectives. This is especially true when combined with the goals of scaling up low-carbon and high-performance objectives. The session will explore how the three primarily residential companies have built their businesses around offsite manufacturing principles and have developed strategies to “unsilo” the industry. By focusing on collaboration instead of competition, problem solving instead of finger pointing, and true participation at all levels, each company has... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm | ||
Decarbonizing and Electrifying DHW Using Commercial-Scale CO2 Heat PumpsDecarbonizing and Electrifying DHW Using Commercial-Scale CO2 Heat PumpsThis session will discuss the advantages and challenges of using CO2 Heat Pumps for decarbonizing and efficiently electrifying commercial Domestic Hot Water systems. The session will outline and discuss the Mitsubishi Electric Heat2O DHW solution along with other CO2 DHW systems and their applications. The functionality, operation, scalability, and relevant design challenges related to these types of solutions will be explained. This session will discuss the use and benefit of CO2 as a refrigerant and its impact on environmentally sustainable buildings. Participants will understand the... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm | ||
Saving Energy in Hospitals with Passive House TechniquesSaving Energy in Hospitals with Passive House TechniquesAs the energy and carbon landscape evolves, the design and construction of hospitals must change to meet new challenges. New techniques, perspectives and methodologies must be applied to drive innovation and achieve outstanding results. From the dual perspective of a CPHC and experienced HVAC design engineer, we will provide an overview of Passive House principles in the context of hospital design and construction. We will review three case studies: one occupied, one in construction, and one in design. Through these examples, we will demonstrate how the application of Passive House... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm | ||
Scaling Up Material HealthScaling Up Material HealthThe impact of building materials on human and environmental health has received increased attention, and hundreds of design firms have pledged to support healthier materials. Ensuring healthier material selections requires complex decisions and collaborations. Acknowledging this challenge, how can the industry adopt meaningful material health goals across all projects? How can we build on the work others are doing? Material health leaders from four firms will discuss how they are pushing for higher standards with innovative strategies for the implementation of healthier materials on... Full Description |
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm |
