Your Path to Mastering Building Science

"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning."

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

?Update: I no longer have this course on HeatSpring. I'll be reactivating on a different platform sometime this year. (4/15/2020)

Perhaps your path in building science has some similarities to mine. I got into it when I bought some land and decided to build a house on it. I struggled with the design process. I struggled with the construction. But mostly I struggled with knowing enough building science to do it right.

I took a three day homebuilding class at the Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta and that helped a lot. It was far from enough, though. That class answered my question about whether or not I needed a vapor barrier. Well, sort of. I still didn't really understand that issue as well as I should have.

In designing and building that house, I did an OK job with the building enclosure. I'd certainly do some things differently now, but that house was airtight, well insulated, and the most comfortable home I've ever lived in.

When it came to heating and air conditioning the house, however, I did a what I think was a poor job. I got the HVAC contractor to do a Manual J load calculation, but the size system he said we needed was still twice what I calculated later. Nor did I know enough about ventilation at the time. We did have a balanced system, but it was the wrong type and it dried out the house in winter by overventilating.

Since building that house a decade and a half ago, I've learned the building science that I wished I had known back then. I've been teaching it in various courses for the past nine years, and now you can get this information that I wish I had known back in 2001.

I've put a lot of the most important building science principles into an eight week online course called Mastering Building Science. Here's the agenda:

• Week 1: Becoming a Building Enclosure Control Freak - Part 1
• Week 2: Becoming a Building Enclosure Control Freak - Part 2
• Week 3: Climate Zones & Energy Codes
• Week 4: Heating & Cooling: Equipment
• Week 5: Heating & Cooling: Distribution
• Week 6: Whole House & Local Ventilation Systems + Indoor Air Quality
• Week 7: Case Studies for Success
• Week 8: Wrap Up - Final Exam

If you've been puzzled about understanding perm ratings, choosing the right mechanical system, or the best path to good indoor air quality, this course could be just what you've been looking for.

But it's not just about information. One of your assignments in the course will be to build a database of product information that you can use in your work if you're an architect, builder, or other professional in the field of construction or for your own projects if you're not in the field.

You'll also get tools that you can use to help you make decisions about how much insulation to use, which heating system will be best, and more. You can check out one of these tools in my free course, Series and Parallel R-Value Calculator.

The next session of Mastering Building Science begins next Monday, 10 October. I'll be contributing to the discussions, which have been very active in past classes. Won't you join us?

Questions?

 All the best,

~ Allison

PS Students in previous classes have gotten a lot out of the course. Here's what architect Hunder Dendy from Asheville, NC had to say about it:

"This is one of the best collections of building science knowledge and instruction available outside of a university setting. It was well worth every minute I put into it over the course of the 8 weeks."

And here's the rating students have given the course:

Go ahead. Check it out. If you're not sure about it, just try the free course, Series and Parallel R-Value Calculator.

PPS If you need continuing education units (CEUs), this course offers 17.5 CEUs for your Building Performance Institute (BPI) certifications and 12 CEUs for Certified Passive House Consultants (CPHC?) through the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS).