Contributors

February 20, 2015

A version of this article appears in the March/April 2015 issue of Home Energy Magazine.

Kevin Berg

While writing this month’s article, Kevin Berg realized that the information he was presenting would have been very useful to him earlier in his career. “I think about all of the extra material runs to the work site and what that was costing us. If I had run the numbers, I would have seen the benefit in investing time to reduce this inefficiency.”

To transform our existing work flows, we need to build a culture of quality in our companies at all levels, he says. “John Tooley is right; we need to create blame-free workplaces.”

What you didn’t know about him: “I have degrees in law and theater directing.”

Roger Hahn

“Mr. Pitt’s Neighborhood”

To put it simply, author Roger Hahn thinks the Make It Right project in New Orleans is remarkable. “The more I learned about it, the more remarkable I found it.”

Furthermore, Hahn was impressed by how the project has extended the whole-house philosophy to a whole-project scale. “[Make It Right] includes everything from homeowner counseling to the creation of a for-profit arm to purchase solar equipment in bulk.
I think there’s a place in the energy-
efficient home-building movement for a similarly extended, holistic approach.”

What you didn’t know about him: “I’ve been following a resurgence of interest in Cajun music by a younger generation.”

Steve Mann

“Air Sealing Challenges for Small Buildings”

If the title of Steve Mann’s article in this issue doesn’t give it all away up front, the bottom line is that it’s really hard to meet the Passive House air infiltration threshold even with a small building. “The maximum allowable leakage is less than an extremely tight duct system installed by a topnotch HVAC crew,” he says.

But don’t worry, like most home performance professionals, Mann has a trick to making it happen: “If you want to build a very tight building, test early and test often.”

What you didn’t know about him: “I’d like to run away to Italy and become a chef.”

Chris Stratton

“Kitchen Ventilation”

“In the process of writing this article, I was reminded that a primary function of science is to help us recognize threats that are not readily perceived by our senses, and that we therefore tend to disbelieve or discount,” says Chris Stratton about this month’s piece on kitchen ventilation. In his article, he further explains the science behind the air inside our homes, specifically that “all cooking generates pollutants that affect our health and need to be dealt with, ideally through ventilation.”

What you didn’t know about him: “I’ve been vegan for 15 years, I don’t own a car, and my family met the Thousand Home Challenge in a rental house.”