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3398 Washington Road
Atlanta, GA 30344
USA

773.398.5288

Advanced residential construction and home improvement consulting and owner's advocacy in Atlanta, using the latest building performance diagnostic and modeling techniques and tools. Airtightness, insulation, HVAC, ventilation, moisture, and air quality and EMF consulting for homeowners and building professionals alike.

Videos/Podcasts/Articles

Home performance articles and stories from the field with internationally respected building forensics guru Corbett Lunsford at the Building Performance Workshop. Hear new episodes of the Building Performance Podcast, see new videos from the Home Performance YouTube channel, and learn all about how diagnostic testing (more than an 'Energy Audit') can make home improvement and new home construction a proven process!

Filtering by Tag: hvac design

Engineering a TOURING Tiny House: See the Full Series

Corbett Lunsford

Grace and Corbett are building a performance-proven tiny house on wheels called the Tiny Lab! It's going to be built from November to February, and it starts a 16-city US Tour in March of 2016. The Crowd Sourcing Campaign is happening NOW on RocketHub- CLICK HERE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TOUR! Here's the full series of four webinars from August 2015 detailing the engineering of a super cool tiny house on wheels!

In #1: SHAPE AND LAYOUT, Corbett and Grace show the 3D sketchup model of the Tiny Lab, and bring engineer John Bergman in for some heavy lifting to do with pinpointing the center of gravity on this 24 ft trailer tiny house.

In #2: AIRSEALING, INSULATION, & WEATHER BARRIERS, tour the process of energy modeling the tiny house to determine the optimal R-values and level of airtightness, and hear about vapor barriers, moisture control, and drainage.

In #3: HEATING, COOLING, AND VENTILATION, you get a taste for how wrong a lot of the discussion goes about homes in general, and tiny homes especially. The HVAC design, including Manual J heat load calculations and hourly solar gain curves are analyzed and used for things as straightforward as deciding which direction to park the tiny house.

In #4: BELLS & WHISTLES, see behind the design of the solar PV kit, formaldehyde-free plywood built-ins, composting toilet, off-grid plumbing challenges, and luxury items that just add that quality of life that tiny house occupants are seeking.

We really hope you'll tune in for the videos of construction- you can subscribe to our YouTube channel right now with one click!

Dear Corbett: How Long Should My A/C Ideally Run?

Corbett Lunsford

Hi Corbett,
How long should the air conditioner run in a given day?  The upstairs zone was running for 16 hours yesterday, and 10.5 and 11.25 each of the days before.  Is that reasonable amount of time for the A/C to run given the recent summer temperatures?  We are still trying to get the developer in to fix the ductwork, and figured this might be an symptom of the problem.
Thanks,
Graham

Hey Graham!
Great question- your air conditioner is actually designed to run continuously when it's hotter than 89 degrees F outside.
The A/C's job is to both COOL and DRY the air, and if it's too big, it doesn't run long enough to wring the humidity out of the air. This leaves you with a muggy house, where you keep lowering the temperature to try to get comfortable.
So don't be concerned when your air conditioner runs for long periods on hot summer days- that means everything's working the way it's supposed to!
Looking Forward,
Corbett

PODCAST #60 THE BOTTOM LINE: Russell King on HVAC Design & Energy Codes in Real Life

Corbett Lunsford

Today Corbett talks with Russell King of Sierra Building Science about the labratory of California, where they've been trying to whip and incentivize efficiency like nobody's business. Are Manual J, Manual D, Manual S, window placements and sizes, and a menu of prescriptive energy code requirements actually leading us toward perfection?

To download this episode or hear more, subscribe in iTunes or visit BuildingPerformancePodcast.com

PODCAST #57 PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS: Entertain What's Wrong in Green Building with the Green Curmudgeon

Corbett Lunsford

Today Corbett talks with Carl Seville, aka The Green Curmudgeon, about the unsolved problems of green product lobbies, utility energy efficiency programs, value engineering, and people's screwed up notions about what's important in buildings. Hosted by Corbett Lunsford of Green Dream Group, and sponsored by the bible for testing homes.

To download this episode or hear more, subscribe in iTunes or visit BuildingPerformancePodcast.com

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PODCAST #53 A/C CAN BE SEXY: Kristof Irwin on the Magic of Variable Refrigerant Capacity

Corbett Lunsford

Today we talk with Kristof "Handsome" Irwin, founder of Positive Energy in Austin Texas, about why your air conditioner is probably an idiot (bless its heart) and HVAC heaven that you might not have heard about.

To download this episode or hear more, subscribe in iTunes or visit BuildingPerformancePodcast.com