Building the Future HVAC Workforce

In a recent Flow Lab episode, Ben Walker and Sam Myers sat down with Xavier Walter of the Building Performance Association to talk about one of the biggest questions facing the industry right now: who is going to do this work, and how do we prepare them to do it well?

That conversation covered a lot of ground. Workforce development. Apprenticeship. The relationship between HVAC and weatherization. The value of understanding the house as a system. The role of training, conferences, and mentorship. Underneath all of it was one theme that kept surfacing.

The

Six Principles for Designing Healthy Indoor Environments

In a recent Flow Lab episode we sat down with John Ellis, an indoor environmental consultant who works with some of the most sensitive clients you can imagine. Think cystic fibrosis, oncology patients, lung transplant recipients, and severe asthma. For those people, the way we design and run HVAC systems is not a nice to have. It is a medical decision.

When John talks about indoor air quality, he does not start with gadgets. He starts with six basic principles that every contractor should be thinking about on every job, long before

When a Right Sized AC Still Leaves You Sticky: Diagnostics and Tools That Actually Fix Humidity

In a recent Flow Lab conversation with Nikki Krueger from Santa Fe, we

The Blower Door: Diagnostic Tool, Not Just a Report Card

In a recent Flow Lab episode, we talked with high school building trades instructor Matt Blomquist, who runs a long standing home building

From “Do It This Way” to “What Happens If…?” Rethinking Trade Training

In a recent Flow Lab episode, we had the pleasure of talking with Leilani Orr and Ty Branham from the GRIT Foundation, a nonprofit that runs hands on trade camps for 12 to 17 year olds. We invited them on to talk about workforce shortages and getting young people interested in the trades. What stuck with us most, though, was how intentional they are about how people learn.

Listening back, a theme kept popping up: the best training does not start

Bridging the Trades: Why Heat Pumps, Solar, and Airtightness Belong in the Same Conversation

The New Shape of Home Performance

Once upon a time, solar installers, HVAC contractors, and building scientists could each stay in their own lane. Today, those lanes are merging fast.

As homes go all-electric—heat pumps replacing furnaces,

De nieuwe NEN 2686:2025
Wat verandert er voor luchtdichtheidstesters

Inleiding

De Nederlandse norm NEN 2686:2025 markeert een belangrijke actualisering ten opzichte van eerdere versies die inmiddels al stammen uit 2008 en eerder.

De norm is nu grotendeels gebaseerd op de NEN-EN-ISO 9972:2015, de Nederlandse vertaling van de internationale ISO 9972. Daarmee sluit de methode voor luchtdichtheidsmetingen beter aan bij

Establishing the Infiltration Volume (ANSI/RESNET/ICC 380-2022)

Under the ANSI/RESNET/ICC 380-2022 standard, the inclusion of attics, crawlspaces, and basements in the Infiltration Volume (IV) during blower door testing is determined by their physical characteristics and the configuration of access points during the test. This guide summarizes the criteria for inclusion or exclusion based solely on the 2022 standard.

From Boston to Melbourne: Sean Maxwell on Building Science, Air Tightness, and Australia's Leap Forward

On our latest episode of The Flow Lab Podcast, we were joined by Sean Maxwell, an American-born building scientist now making waves in Australia’s residential construction scene. With over a decade of experience living and working in Sydney and Melbourne, Sean shared his candid perspective on the state of air tightness, energy efficiency, and training down under—and how it compares to the U.S. and Europe. 

Living in Leaky Homes—and Fixing Them

Sean didn’t hold back when describing the current state of Australian housing: “It’s just so bad,” he

From Blower Doors to the Big Leagues: A Deep Dive into Large Building Testing with Denali Jones

If you’ve ever tried to pressure test a 36-story tower with a cranky elevator and a temperamental exhaust fan, you know that commercial air tightness testing is a different animal entirely. In the latest episode of The Flow Lab, we welcomed Denali Jones, Technical Director at the Air Barrier Association of America (ABAA) to talk about what it really takes to test large buildings, why it matters, and how the industry is (finally) catching up.

From Retrotec