How the Best HVAC Equipment Gets Made: Fast Tour of Mitsubishi Cooling & Heating Headquarters

I've always wanted to go, and am finally learning some new tips and tricks that Mitsubishi puts into their high performance equipment to be a little more ballsy than other manufacturers. See a slice of the innovations in ducted heat pumps, ductless minisplits, testing at extreme environmental conditions, an 11-acre warehouse, a tech support division staffed by HVAC contractors with working demo units and controls, and more. Thanks also to Ryan Burrell who led the technical discussion (and who helped me select the exact Mitsubishi heat pumps that went into our new home).

Thanks to Matt Hoots (https://youtube.com/c/SawhorseDesignBuild) for putting together this trip to Mitsubishi's HQ in Atlanta GA.

Learn more about any of this stuff at: https://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/

Testing Our Home's ERV: Ventilation Airflow, Dewpoint Performance, and Grill Balancing

Using a Testo hotwire anemometer and hygrometer, Retrotec FlowBox, and CPS EasyHood, we commission this Fantech SER150 energy recovery ventilator and tune it to our high performance home's (and our family's) needs.

I get all my test tools from the awesome people at: https://TruTechTools.com

Learn more about this ventilation system: http://Fantech.net

Dehumidifiers How/What/Why: Installation and Testing of Ultra-Aire 120H and MD33

Modern homes need dehumidifiers, separate from the air conditioner. We chose the highest performance units available, Ultra-Aire's 120H and MD33- here we'll give you a full tour of the planning, sizing, installation, and testing of these machines in our performance-tuned, self-built home.

See these two dehumidifiers we selected for our home:
120H - https://www.santa-fe-products.com/product/120h/
MD33 - https://www.santa-fe-products.com/product/ultra-aire-md33/

The Testo 440 kit I use in the video can be found at: https://www.trutechtools.com/Testo-440

See the first-ever TV series about the Science of Homes: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

Lessons Learned Building High Performance Forever Homes: Factory-Built Modular Home & Self-Build DIY

For the national home performance conference, we presented side-by-side with our longtime friend and collaborator Bill Spohn (https://spohnhome.com/) about our simultaneous building of family forever homes. Pretty different approaches, and yes, this is a long presentation- hope the super nerds out there will enjoy hearing the breakdown.

Find Bill through his company, TruTech Tools: https://TruTechTools.com

Tiny House Building Science Basics

1. Tell us about the TinyLab:

Our #TinyLab is a 210 sq. ft. house on wheels we designed and built ourselves to be the best performing home most people have ever seen. It’s supremely airtight, quiet, and comfortable, while also being equipped with the best heating, cooling, and ventilation systems in the world. We’re showing Americans how home performance works with our non-profit Proof Is Possible Tour. There’s this mythology around houses that ‘they all have problems, that’s just how they are’; it’s just not true.

2. How did the TinyLab start?

Well, the dynamics of home performance are based in physics, which is tough to explain- our colleagues have been trying for decades. But these dynamics can have real consequences for your family- they can cause sickness or even death. We thought, ‘how can we show consumers home performance?’ The #TinyLab is what all homes could evolve to be, whether they’re big or small. It’s a critical time for this, since building codes in all 50 states are requiring performance testing.

3. What are the major findings between the relationship of health and homes?

Two major health problems anyone can find out themselves for starters: dampness and carbon monoxide (CO). The symptoms of CO poisoning are ‘flu-like’, but ask yourself how many times you’ve been to the doctor with ‘flu-like’ symptoms and ever been tested for CO poisoning (never, say most people). And though we know dampness causes mold, mildew, dust mites, etc, do we think about what causes dampness? It’s usually air leakage- air leakage is the single biggest problem in most homes.

4. How do you protect yourself from carbon monoxide poisoning?

The only way to be sure is to test. Whole-home performance testing can prove if your gas stove, water heater, furnace, or fireplace are exhausting properly and creating very little CO. We have a Defender ‘low-level’ monitor in the TinyLab. Your normal CO detector won’t always protect you. If it’s what’s called ‘UL-listed’ then it specifically will NOT protect children, pregnant women, ill or elderly people from low-level carbon monoxide poisoning. And it says so right in the manual. Crazy.

5. What are 5 tips you have for any homeowner/ renter reading this?

One: Your home is a system of interacting parts, so anyone who says one product can fix it is lying or naïve. Two: Proof is Possible- act on diagnostic proof before you undertake surgery on your home and before you pay your contractors for measured improvements. Three: airtightness is good- don’t let anyone tell you we should build crappy houses that can ‘breathe’ through the cracks. Four: ventilation is critical- take stale air out, bring fresh air in. Five: Our YouTube channel is called ‘Home Performance’- you can learn tips 6 through 1000 there.

6. What specific diagnostics are recommended for homes?

Great question! Blower door testing is most important- our TinyLab’s test proves that as first-time homebuilders, we achieved the most airtight standard in the world (that’s what makes it so quiet in here). Infrared thermal photos prove our insulation works. Pressure testing proves our home is not sucking air back in through exhaust fans or chimneys. Airflow testing proves our HVAC system’s working as designed. Air quality tests prove our family isn’t being poisoned. Proof is possible. Ask for it.

To learn more about your home’s performance, download the free ‘GeniusBooklet’ at:

https://buildingperformanceworkshop.com/geniusbooklet-how-your-home-works

To see the #TinyLab as it travels across the U.S. on the Proof Is Possible Tour, see the schedule at:

http://ProofIsPossible.com

How to Plan and Prep Ductwork

For our family's performance-tuned home, I’m giving you a deep-dive into the beginning stage of the heating/cooling and ventilation ducting throughout the house. See assembly, fastening, sealing with mastic (the good stuff, not the cheap stuff) for duct boot stacks and outdoor vent hood terminations.

For more on this house, check out: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

To support our educational videos, become a member at: http://Patreon.com/HomeDiagnosisTV

Building Our Forever Home DIY: Lessons Learned

What have we learned designing and building our own forever home? Well, kind of a lot. But we tried to keep it short, so here’s a 40-minute long tour through our brains while we’re still under construction.

We’d LOVE your support to keep bringing all this free education to the world. You can support us for as little as $5/month at: http://Patreon.com/HomeDiagnosisTV

Home Ventilation for the 21st Century

There's a lot of mythology and misinformation about how to ventilate homes, and here Corbett shows, with the assistance of Phil Rivas from Fantech, how a perfect ventilation system gets built with 5 classes of HVI-certified equipment.

More on these products at: http://Fantech.net

More on HVI (Home Ventilating Institute): http://HVI.org

More on this build at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv

Foundation Backfill: Geotextile, Insulation, Waterproofing and Drainage

Watch the Lunsford family finally backfill their conditioned crawlspace foundation, describing and demonstrating what a high performance foundation wall system can do. More on this project at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

100-Year Roof: Mento 3000

See 475's high performance Pro Clima roof membrane get installed on this 3:12 pitched roof, before the rain screen , exterior insulation, and eaves get put on. More on this project at: https://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

Get samples of these awesome building materials at: http://FourSevenFive.com

High Performance Home Building Materials

Corbett has received shipment on all the components of the shell of the big house build!
More at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead

Thanks to:
475 Building Supply: http://FourSevenFive.com
ROCKWOOL INSULATION: http://Rockwool.com
ALPEN WINDOWS: http://ThinkAlpen.com
THERMALBUCK: http://ThermalBuck.com

How to Install WRB Sheathing (ForceField)

Grace and Corbett show the latest development on their home build- the wall sheathing, which is also the air tightness layer and weather barrier. It's called ForceField, and here you'll see a demo of why it's such an important component in the system, and how to install it for a higher performance home.

More on ForceField at: http://ForceField.BuildGP.com

More on this build at: http://HomeDiagnosis.tv/atlanta-homestead