EP251 Innovation in HVAC: The Quiet Shifts That Matter Most With Bill Spohn (December 2025)
Release Date: 01/02/2026
EP282 Building Better Leaders: Jane Sidebottom on Mentorship, Workforce, and the Future of HVACR (July 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: "It's not just about features and benefits anymore. It's about the impact your products have on your customer's business." "Training teaches skills. Mentorship builds confidence." "Someone somewhere saw that we were good at something and helped us channel it." "Words matter." The HVACR industry has talked about the workforce shortage for decades—but are we finally making progress? In this episode, Bill sits down with Jane Sidebottom,...
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EP281 Building a Diagnostic-First HVAC Company with Derek Aarstad
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: "When your HVAC system is performing at 100%, but the home isn't, the problem isn't the equipment anymore." "Our job is to be investigators first and installers second." "Homeowners don't just need to know their HVAC system. They need to know their home." "If you think I'm doing too much testing, I'd argue you're probably not doing enough." Many HVAC contractors say they focus on comfort, but Derek Aarstad has built his entire business around proving where comfort...
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EP280 What 130 Million Homes Can Teach HVAC with Scott Rosenberg (June 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “You sell an amazing product that represents the future of home heating and cooling. But selling it, promoting it, and capturing consumers’ attention is hard. At 257, we use data to help you do that more efficiently.” “The best way to judge the effectiveness of machine learning and AI is by the outcome: Did I sell more at a lower cost?” “It wasn’t simply having a heat pump or solar system. Talking about it during the sales process had a positive effect on the home’s sale price.” How can HVAC contractors identify the homeowners most likely to...
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EP279 Curiosity, Heat Pumps, and the Details That Matter – A Conversation with Edward Louie (July 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: "Comfort isn't just about air temperature—it's also about the temperature of everything around you." "If it's difficult to maintain, eventually it simply won't be maintained." "Stay curious about your built environment. Pay attention, ask questions, and keep learning." Edward Louie of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory joins Bill Spohn for a thoughtful discussion that goes far beyond heat pumps. Known throughout the building science community for his data-driven LinkedIn posts and willingness to challenge conventional wisdom, Edward...
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EP278 From Boiler Timers to Predictive Control: Smarter Heat for Multifamily Buildings with Heather Zoberman from Entech (June 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “Technology does its best work when it turns invisible problems into obvious next steps.” “Most buildings are already telling us what they need. The trick is finally learning how to listen.” “You can’t optimize what you can’t see, and old buildings have been hiding their stories in boiler rooms for decades.” In this episode of Building HVAC Science, Bill speaks with Heather Zoberman of ENTECH about how older multifamily buildings can move from basic, wasteful boiler control toward smarter, data-driven heating and cooling management. Heather explains...
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EP277 Dirty Little Secret: Why Heat Pumps Need Deep Cleaning with Gabriel Erde-Cohen (June 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “Heat pumps can’t meet their promise if they’re not properly maintained.” “Vacuuming the filter matters, but it is not the same thing as deep cleaning the system.” “If it has a coil and a fan, we can clean it.” “Electrification only works as intended when the equipment keeps working as intended.” In this episode of Building HVAC Science, Bill talks with Gabriel Erde-Cohen, founder of We Clean Heat Pumps, about an often-overlooked part of electrification: what happens to heat pumps after installation. Gabriel shares how his Vermont-based business...
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EP276 When “Passed Inspection” Isn’t Good Enough with Cy Porter (May 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “Passed inspection is not the same as built correctly.” “The best inspectors keep learning, because no one person masters every trade, every code, and every overlap.” “Small defects do not stay small when they are hidden behind walls, ceilings, and warranty paperwork.” In this episode of Building HVAC Science, Bill Spohn talks with Cy Porter of CYFY Home Inspections, an Arizona-based home inspector known for his blunt, high-energy social media videos that expose defects in new-construction homes. Cy specializes in one-year and two-year warranty inspections,...
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EP275 The Sound of Better Buildings with Kieren McCord (May 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “The tighter your envelope, the more attention you have to pay to ventilation and indoor air quality.” “The acoustics of the ordinary rarely gets attention.” “There’s so much good work being done, so much data being collected, and oftentimes it doesn’t leave the hard drive.” “Noise annoyance may be one of the things people are most passionate about.” In this episode of the Building HVAC Science Podcast, Bill Spohn welcomes Kieren McCord, a research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, for a conversation about indoor environmental...
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EP274 The Heat Pump Summit Is Building More Than Better Systems with Brent Davidson (May 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “Stop trying to HVAC your way out of bad buildings, and your results will market themselves.” “The quality work and word of mouth are real when you’re doing building science-backed work with quality staff.” “Come with problems you’re actively trying to work on and meet others who can help you work on them.” In this episode of Building HVAC Science, Bill welcomes back Brent Davidson of the U.S. Heat Pump Summit for his third appearance. Brent shares what emerged from the first full-scale national Heat Pump Summit held in Massachusetts in November 2025,...
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EP273 Think Like an Air Molecule with Dan Stradford (May 2026)
Building HVAC Science
Quotes from the episode: “Ducts matter. Nobody cares much about them until something goes wrong.” “HVAC systems are designed assuming clean, bare sheet metal.” “Even a small layer of dust can become a mountain range to an air molecule.” “Think like an air molecule.” In this episode, Bill speaks with Dan Stradford of Action Duct Cleaning about what really happens inside HVAC duct systems over time and why cleaning can matter more than many people realize. Dan shares how the duct cleaning industry evolved from its “wild west” early days into a more standardized field through...
info_outlineQuotes from the Episode:
“Innovation in HVAC isn’t one big breakthrough. It’s a series of quieter shifts that slowly change how we work.”
“The future of HVAC depends on the people who measure, verify, and continuously improve.”
“Collecting data is getting easier. Interpreting it well is where the real value lives.”
“True innovation isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about reducing uncertainty and delivering better outcomes.”
“Homes aren’t a collection of parts. They’re systems, and HVAC sits right in the middle of that system.”
In this solo episode, Bill Spohn reflects on how innovation in HVAC really happens, not through one flashy breakthrough, but through a series of quieter, incremental shifts that compound over time. Drawing from 250 episodes of conversations on the Building HVAC Science podcast, Bill reframes innovation as a mindset grounded in measurement, feedback, and systems thinking rather than just new equipment.
Bill walks through key patterns he has observed across the industry, including the shift from equipment-focused thinking to system-level performance, the rise of connected and cloud-based field tools, and the growing role of software in interpreting data rather than just collecting it. He highlights how smart tools, real-time diagnostics, commissioning workflows, and platforms like MeasureQuick have changed troubleshooting, accountability, and profitability for contractors who embrace them.
The episode also explores major themes shaping the future of HVAC: electrification and heat pumps, dual-fuel strategies, improved load calculations and design software, smarter controls and commissioning, and the rapid evolution of indoor air quality from a niche topic to a core expectation. Bill emphasizes the increasing integration of HVAC with building science, ventilation, moisture, and enclosure performance, and points to contractors who are thriving by treating homes as complete systems. He closes by reinforcing that true innovation is about reducing uncertainty, improving outcomes, and supporting continuous learning, all while encouraging listeners to explore BetterHVAC as a growing nonprofit resource for contractors and homeowners alike.
This episode was recorded in December 2025.