EEBA's High Performance Home Blog

You may have seen the recent announcement regarding hotel overflow. While the venue hotel is sold out, there are a few rooms still available at the Bahia’s sister property, The Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa (call their direct Reservation line at 800-422-8386 to receive the $189 “EEBA Summit” rate). Additionally, we have listed 4 additional nearby hotels on our website that should have space available. If you’ve procrastinated until now but want to attend or sponsor the Summit, it’s not too late! There are still some incredible events available to sponsor - like the two-hour Evening Social Event Dinner Cruise aboard the Bahia Resort’s William D. Evans Victorian-styled sternwheeler. Guests will be treated to an open bar, three international food stations, and some fabulous views of Mission Bay. Sponsors of this dinner cruise will receive 10 complimentary event tickets, recognition on all marketing and promotional materials (in Summit app, as well as on-site signage), a... read more

The EEBA Designation for Building Professionals will debut at this year’s High Performance Home Summit. The 3-day/3-course program is created for builders, construction managers, sales professionals, and designers seeking a broad understanding of building science and the latest applications in high-performance homes, compliance and strategic innovations. The designation should help demonstrate to employers, supervisors, clients, and consumers an understanding of the most dynamic and important trends in constructing houses. On day one, Gord Cooke will be taking participants through EEBA’s climate-specific Houses That Work™ course, aimed toward educating building professionals on the house-as-a-system approach to home performance. Andy Oding will join Gord Cooke on day two to lead participants through High Performance Mechanicals for Houses That Work™ - a course focused on understanding the growing complexity and scope of residential mechanical systems to comply with energy codes. ... read more

High-performance homes require better HVAC design strategies than code-built homes. Builders can more easily understand high-performance needs by familiarizing themselves with basic HVAC design concepts and strategies. The first step is conducting a room-by-room load calculation. Local climates determine whether a building’s HVAC system is designed to first meet cooling or heating needs. Heating-dominant climates require heating needs to be addressed before cooling, and vice versa. Load calculations are based on the coldest and hottest days of the year to ensure systems provide comfort at both extremes. In any climate, high-performance homes have significantly lower cooling and heating requirements than code-built homes, so the best options for them might be very different than a code-built home. Split-ductless systems, for example, provide both cooling and heating in one highly efficient system, and are a great solution for high-performance homes. The systems are... read more

For the last five years, the Department of Energy at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has organized the “Race to Zero” Student Design Competition in Golden, Colorado. The event challenges college students and faculty from around the world through a design competition for zero energy-ready structures - both single-family and multifamily homes, as well as school buildings. This year’s event brought together 84 student teams from 68 collegiate institutions from nine different countries. EEBA has officially kicked off their student scholarship fundraising efforts by offering free attendance for two students per team to the 2018 High Performance Home Summit in San Diego. Each scholarship of $1,500 provides one student with full Summit registration and meals, double-occupancy for three hotel nights, tickets for a networking event and a dinner cruise, and $500 for transportation. The scholarship fund is the first initiative enabling interested students to attend and... read more