The technical engineering side of high-performance buildings: loads, envelope physics, mechanical system selection, and performance verification.
What you’ll learn
- Apply building-physics fundamentals: heat transfer, moisture, air movement
- Perform load-reduction analysis before system sizing
- Select and compare high-performance mechanical systems
- Integrate renewables and electrification at engineering level
- Verify performance through commissioning and measurement
Lessons
Green Building Engineer Course — Lesson 1: Building physics: heat, air, and moisture
Green Building Engineer Course — Lesson 2: Loads and the reduction-first method
High-performance engineering starts by shrinking the problem. Covers heating/cooling load fundamentals and drivers, internal vs. envelope load dominance by building type, load calculation concepts (and the oversizing epidemic that wastes capital and comfort), and the reduction sequence: envelope, solar control, lighting/plug loads, ventilation strategy — quantifying each step before any equipment is selected. The Reduction […]
Green Building Engineer Course — Lesson 3: Envelope engineering and detailing
From physics to buildable details: high-performance wall/roof assemblies by climate zone, window specification (U-factor, SHGC, and when each dominates), thermal-bridge-free detailing concepts at balconies/parapets/foundations, air-barrier continuity and blower-door targets, and the constructability review — catching the details that fail in the field before they’re built. From Assembly Choice to Buildable DetailLesson 3 — the path […]
Green Building Engineer Course — Lesson 4: High-performance mechanical systems
System selection with engineering judgment: heat pump technologies (air-source, VRF, ground-source) and cold-climate realities, dedicated outdoor air systems with energy recovery, radiant concepts, ventilation strategy and IAQ targets, domestic hot water (often the sleeper load, especially multifamily), and electrification engineering — panel capacity, demand management, and backup strategies. Selecting Systems From the Reduced LoadLesson 4 […]
Green Building Engineer Course — Lesson 5: Renewables, storage, and net-zero engineering
Covers solar PV system sizing against reduced loads, production estimation factors, roof/structural coordination, battery storage use cases (resilience vs. demand management vs. arbitrage), net-zero and net-zero-ready definitions with the engineering path to each, and grid-interaction concepts — demand response and the load-flexibility value that’s becoming real money. Sizing Renewables Against a Reduced LoadLesson 5 — […]
Green Building Engineer Course — Lesson 6: Commissioning, M&V, and closing the performance gap
Buildings rarely perform as designed — this lesson is why and what to do. Covers the performance gap causes (controls, operations, modeling optimism), commissioning process from design review to functional testing, measurement & verification approaches, ongoing monitoring-based commissioning, and the feedback loop into the next design. Ends with the engineer’s report format for performance verification. […]