Two old guys, Ty (71 years) and brother, Tod (74 years), took off from Urbana Illinois on March 25, 2023 toward New England for NESEA’s and Efficient Vermont’s building conferences. A story about two old guys in a pickup truck and 2700 miles of driving is not the most exciting adventure, but we had a lot of fun and visited a number of projects along the way that we hope you find interesting.
We left Urbana Illinois on a windy day that blew us near Hammondsport NY where we visited the Glenn H Curtiss Museum. The museum has wonderful exhibits covering aviation, motocycle, and automotive histories. Glenn Curtiss was a talented inventor and skilled business person who grew Curtiss Aeroplane into an incredibly successful industry.
We stopped in southwestern Vermont on our way to Boston to visit Scott and Annikas’ fantastic home under construction. Their new home is in a secluded scenic area of Vermont. Geothermal water-to-water heat pumps provide radiant heating and cooling of the home and barn shown behind us. A 1 ton ducted minisplit heat pump and a ducted dehumidifier are integrated and controlled by the CERV2. A Geo-Boost heat exchanger is connected to the geoloop for enhancing CERV2 efficiency and capacity.
We enjoyed a scenic highway drive to Boston, arriving by mid-afternoon at the convention center for the NESEA conference.
Tod turned out to be a great “roady”. We set up our exhibition booth, checked into our hotel, and headed to downtown Boston to meet our grandnephew, Max, for dinner.
Boston is great! We could walk from our hotel to the convention center, as well as to downtown where we enjoyed a delicious meal with Max. NESEA started bright and early the next day. Jeff St Pierre, a builder from York Maine who has installed several CERV2s in his projects, stopped by to say hi. We’ll visit Jeff after the conference to tour a couple of his projects.
Raj Saleem of Piera Systems, came to visit with us. Piera Systems is the developer and manufacturer of advanced particulate sensors that Build Equinox is incorporating into our smart ventilation products. Piera Systems sensor provides both “mass” and “count” particulate metrics that are essential for characterizing particulates. Indoor air quality in the exhibition hall was poor (1900ppm CO2!) during break periods with high occupant density.
Ty gave a presentation on classroom IAQ, discussing the pollutant characteristics in high occupant density environments.
Following the conference, Fred and Jacob Gordon, father and son team developing high performance multifamily buildings in south Boston, picked me up for a tour of south Boston and their wonderful, 150 year old Distillery. Fred built The Distillery North, one of the first multifamily Passive House buildings in North America on the north side of the old Distillery building.
The Distillery is a wonderful confluence of history and art. As Fred and Jacob took me through the old building and the new, I was amazed and fascinated by the Gordon’s vision to breathe new life into their neighborhood. The Distillery is more than an apartment building. A community of artists live and work in The Distillery. The hallways have an eclectic mix of art produced by residents coupled with historic relics from the building’s past as a rum distillery. Shown in the pictures below (clockwise starting at the upper left) are: Fred and I (photo courtesy of Jacob Gordon) standing outside the café in the north building’s ground floor; an artistic door, one of many features spread throughout the building; interior of the Boston Physical Therapy and Wellness center, a business located in The Distillery (notice the CERV2 in the small mechanical closet); and a picture of Fred standing by the rum distillery’s old time clock.
Portsmouth NH and Ogunquit/York Me
We left Boston and headed to Ogunquit Maine, just north of the New Hampshire border to spend the weekend and visit more sites.
On Friday, I visited Bob Barmore, President of Therma-HEXX in Portsmouth New Hampshire. Bob is the inventor and developer of Therma-HEXX’s unique radiant panel system. The panels are manufactured at their facility in Portsmouth. Tod and I found a microbrewery in Ogunquit and enjoyed a weekend of walking beautiful beaches and enjoying wonderful scenery.
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Ogunquit, is a peaceful, wooded area with wonderful walking trails that Tod and I enjoyed. On Monday, we met up with Jeff St Pierre who lives nearby in York Maine. We asked a person walking their dog to take our picture (including his pup) at a scenic location along the coast.
Jeff took us to a home he recently built. Pierre and Susan (standing by their CERV2) graciously allowed us to visit their beautiful home just outside York. Notice the immense rocks Jeff removed from the foundation area and skillfully placed around the home for an enjoyable aesthetic feature.
We drove into York and visited Brixham Montessori school. Jeff decarbonized Brixham, replacing the school’s propane furnaces with high performance heat pumps and five CERV2 smart ventilation systems to automatically maintain healthy air. We’re happy to report that air quality in the school is excellent, as observed in CERV-ICE, the online dashboard for monitoring and controlling the CERV2 units. The pictures below show the Brixham school, a mechanical closet with one of the CERV2 units and the AHU (air handling unit) for one of the comfort conditioning heat pumps, and a photo of three heat pump ODUs (Outdoor Unit).
We left beautiful southern Maine and headed to White River Junction, home of Vermod, a builder of high performance modular homes. Build Equinox has worked with Vermod since they began producing homes in 2013. We stayed at the Coolidge Hotel, an eclectic hotel built in the 19th century and named after President Coolidge’s father. The hotel was originally named “Junction House” as White River Junction was the intersection of 5 railroad lines.
The conference room in the Coolidge Hotel has a wonderful mural depicting White River Junction’s history. The mural was painted by a Dartmouth student who received room-and -board for his efforts (Dartmouth is just across the Connecticut River in Hanover NH).
The train station is just across the street from the Coolidge Hotel, and trains continue to roll through town.
The liquified petroleum gas in this train car passing through White River Junction may be non-odorized, but it still stinks!
Interesting building wall in downtown White River Junction. Poignant messages with several reflecting our universal desires to be happy, healthy, and kind to others. Just a couple miles away from White River Junction is Quechee Vermont where Whistle Pig Distillery’s tasting room is located. Ty is whistling after sampling a wonderful cask strength rye. Yes, a bottle did make it back to Illinois.
It was great seeing our Vermod friends (Ashley, me, Steve and Kristen). Vermod builds healthy, comfortable and beautiful high performance homes. Steve Davis (Vermod Founder), gave us a tour of the manufacturing facility. Every bay is active with modules under construction. Steve showed us their latest home ready for delivery. This home has a side module attached. Steve is standing in the home’s mechanical room where the CERV2 with integrated ducted minisplit heat pump are located. Sketchup models showing mechanical room layouts like Vermod’s are located on our website.
Vermont may be a small state with the smallest capital in the US, but just like particulates in the air, being small does not mean being insignificant. Vermont is ground zero for progressive building in North America. Vermonters are at the forefront of building healthy, energy efficient, and sustainable homes in North America. Vermonter’s “can do” attitude is creating a bright future for their children.
Buddy’s Famous Hamburgers is a great stop for lunch in Montpelier, Vermont’s capital. Vermonters are building a sustainable future that will outlast the golden dome of their capital.
We continued to Burlington for Efficiency Vermont’s Better Buildings by Design conference. The pandemic had kept us from attending the past few years and it was great to be back!
My roady moved our stuff into the exhibition hall where we set up for the next two days. Of course, we found our way to another microbrewery….it’s not hard to find one in Burlington!
Laura Capps from Efficiency Vermont gave an excellent presentation on indoor air quality. Laura and her colleagues have been monitoring IAQ in a number of facilities around the State. Unfortunately, Dr Taylor’s keynote address was cancelled, but overall the conference had strong attendance.
As the conference wrapped up, Tod and I packed up the truck and headed out. We stayed overnight in Erie PA, about halfway home, and continued on the next day in an uneventful (thankfully) drive back.
We made it home for the Easter holiday, in time to join our family for a fun weekend. It’s hard to believe how fast 50 years goes by! It seems like yesterday it was only Deb and me. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by so much love.
It was a great trip! Maybe we’ll get to visit your project on the next one.
