Electrifying Heating

“Deep decarbonization” is all the rage in energy circles, but what does it really mean for actually retrofitting and remodeling buildings? Is it just about replacing oil and gas-fired boilers and furnaces with electric equivalents? Or does it actually mean something far more complex and interesting? Our guest in this episode is a registered engineering technologist in building construction technologies and an award-winning expert on the integration of the building sciences and health sciences who believes the best solutions come from an integrated design approach that takes all elements of buildings and human experience into account, not just how we heat our buildings. This lengthy, wide-ranging, and often humorous discussion covers everything from building science, to regional and national politics, to human physiology and psychology, to the ways that we teach architecture and building design, and much more…and it will leave you with an entirely new concept of what “deep decarbonization” really means. Plus: we finally delve into the arcane but important concepts of exergy and entropy.

Geek rating: 5

Guest: Robert Bean is a registered engineering technologist in building construction technologies and a professional licensee in mechanical engineering. He is president of Indoor Climate Consultants Inc. and technical director for www.healthyheating.com. He has been awarded numerous industry awards for his work which focuses on the integration of the building sciences and health sciences and corresponding energy issues.

On Twitter: @healthyheating

On the Web: www.healthyheating.com

Recording date: September 16, 2017

Air date: October 4, 2017

Teaser photo credit: By Jeff Kubina from the milky way galaxy – Solar Decathlon 2007, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3425394