Libsyn Directory

EP254 Mold, Moisture, and Missed Details: Lessons From the Building Science Trenches With Kohta Ueno (January 2026)

Release Date: 01/23/2026

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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,...

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...

EP272 Live from NHPC 2026: Where HVAC, Buildings, and People Intersect With Brynn Cooksey from HVAC-U PART 2 (April 2026)

Building HVAC Science

Quotes from the episode: “High-performance homes are not about the equipment. They are about the outcomes for the people inside.” “The gap is not in technology. It is in execution and understanding.” “The contractors who win are the ones who connect building science to real human experience.” Recorded live at the 2026 National Home Performance Conference in Columbus, this episode of the Building HVAC Science Podcast brings together Bill Spohn, Eric Kaiser, and guest Brynn Cooksey for a conversation at the intersection of buildings, HVAC systems, and the...

EP271 Live from NHPC 2026: Where HVAC, Buildings, and People Intersect With Brynn Cooksey from HVAC-U PART 1 (April 2026)

Building HVAC Science

More Episodes

QUOTES from the episode:

“Most building failures aren’t mysterious. They’re just ignored fundamentals.”

“If you demand museum-level humidity, you’re no longer building a house. You’re building a museum.”

“Moisture meters don’t solve problems. They show you patterns. The thinking solves the problem.”

In this episode of the Building HVAC Science Podcast, Eric Kaiser is joined by Kohta Ueno, principal and co-owner of Building Science Corporation, for a wide-ranging discussion on building failures, moisture, HVAC, and the practical realities of diagnosing real-world problems. Kohta shares his unconventional path into building science, from small remodeling jobs and a PBS NOVA episode to decades of forensic investigations alongside Joe Lstiburek, one of the field’s most influential voices. The conversation quickly moves from origin stories into what really matters: how buildings fail, why those failures are often predictable, and how much cheaper it is to solve problems on paper than after construction.

A major theme is moisture management, especially in high-performance and multifamily buildings. Kohta explains how seemingly small details, like window sill slope, back dams, airflow settings, and interior air seals, routinely separate durable buildings from expensive failures. He also highlights a growing perfect storm in modern construction: oversized HVAC equipment, high ventilation rates, poor commissioning, and limited dehumidification, particularly in smaller units. The result is mold, humidity complaints, and systems that technically run but fail to control moisture.

The episode closes with a practical look at diagnostic tools and methods. Kohta emphasizes pattern recognition over single-point measurements, combining moisture meters, thermal imaging, pressure diagnostics, and blower door testing to understand how air, heat, and moisture actually move through buildings. He encourages listeners to use freely available Building Science Corporation research and Joe Lstiburek’s Building Science Insights as foundational resources, reminding the audience that most building failures are not mysterious. They are repeatable, understandable, and avoidable if the fundamentals are respected.

Kohta’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kohta-ueno-472a4/

Links mentioned in the episode:

Our Current HVAC Mess

Experts discuss problems with residential HVAC systems as a first step toward defining solutions

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/our-current-hvac-mess

Proposed Solutions for Residential HVAC Problems

Experts suggest ways to improve the quality of residential heating, ventilating, and cooling equipment installations

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/proposed-solutions-for-the-residential-hvac-industry

A presentation on my investigations of multifamily humidity problems:

Multifamily Humidity Control Problems: Muggy Mayhem

https://buildingscience.com/sites/default/files/presentation-docs/2021-05-06_nesea_be21_muggy_mayhem_ueno_for_pdf_0.pdf

I have done a presentation on the diagnostic tools I use in my buildings forensic work; here’s the slide deck: