Transduction Technologies

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Transduction Technologies

We provide energy solutions to tenants, home owners, or large commercial building owners.

08/25/2026

Multi-family (MF) Construction - Why it Sucks - Part 4: Lazy or cheap Owners/Managers. In the month of August alone, I've actually had the following conversation with at least 3 different MF staffers: ⁠
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MF Staffer: We are getting lots of complaints about high humidity and brown spots on the ceiling drywall from tenants. ⁠
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Me: This is due to air infiltration. Hot & humid outside air is hitting your uninsulated and cold ductwork, causing the outside air to condensate on the ductwork. Then, the condensate drips down onto the drywall, and causes the brown spots on the ceiling. ⁠
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MF Staffer: Have you send this before? ⁠
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Me: About 8,000 times. ⁠
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MF Staffer: Well, our HVAC contractor says it's because the ACs are undersized. They suggest we spend tens of thousands of dollars upsizing all our ACs? ⁠
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Me: sigh... 1) your AC is already oversized for the apartment it serves; 2) upsizing will actually make it worse; 3) the much cheaper solution is to air seal the band joists and exterior walls. ⁠
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MF Staffer: [Silence] ⁠
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Me: How about this... for $500, we'll test the air infiltration of one unit, show you where the air infiltration is occurring with an infrared camera, & show you where the ducts are sweating/dripping (photo above). ⁠
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MF Staffer: Well, I'll have to talk to my manager/owner. ⁠
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Me: Hello again, I spoke with you a week ago, any decisions on how you're going to tackle the high humidity complaints? ⁠
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MF Staffer: Owner/manager said they didn't want to pay for the diagnostics or new ACs. We're just telling tenants to buy a dehumidifier or crank down the thermostat. ⁠
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Me: Again, that's not going to stop the duct work in the truss space from sweating. ⁠
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MF Staffer: Well, in another month or so, it will cool down & it won't be a problem anymore. ⁠
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Me: 🤦

08/05/2026

Congrats to and John Connor & Maryana Heilman for achieving their preliminary blower door test of 0.57 ACH50 and 0.04 CFM50/EA.

08/03/2026

Why You Test [& perform load calculations] – Part 8⁠
This 2006 single family house recently replaced its HVAC system by a national service company. According to the owners, when the old system was replaced, the national service company told them that they did proper load calculations to determine the size of the new equipment. Since then, the owners have had trouble with their atmospherically vented hot water heater just to the right of the furance/air handler (Photo 1). The 8-year old, methane gas, domestic hot water (DHW) heater seems to frequently backdraft (Photo 2). According to the owners, this had just started in the past few months. No building shell upgrades had occurred. After speaking to several contractors who couldn’t solve the problem, we were brought in. ⁠
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Most weatherization contractors know where this is heading. We turned on the air handler, closed the door of the mechanical room, and measured the pressure (Photo 3). The air handler with the undersized return ducts (Photo 1) had depressurized mechanical room to -7.8 Pa. The atmospherically driven, natural flue draft was only -3 pascals. So whenever the air handler was running, it would pull the flue exhausts back into the mechanical room. The mechanical room needed either makeup air, larger returns, or additional returns. Alternatively, a flue exhaust fan could also be added. There are several ways to solve this problem. ⁠
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The furnace installed was a 98,000 BTUH. Not sure how they did their “proper load calculation”, but our quick analysis was about half that size (~52,000 BTUH). Oversized furnace also led to an oversized air handler, which runs between 1,090 and 1,914 CFM. Point being, the incorrect load calculation (if any at all) led to a bigger system with a bigger air handler. The larger air handler requires a larger return volume. The lack of sufficient return air forced the air handler to get its required CFM from the mechanical room. This led to the mechanical room depressurize and overcoming the atmospherically vented, DHW flue.

07/27/2026

IRC Section 703.7 requires 2 (two) water resistance but v***r open barriers (WRB) when stucco is applied directly over wood-based sheathing (no air gap or rainsceen). What products are you using as your 2 WRBs and how are they applied? For example, a common approach is Zip or similar sheathing with building wrap product mechanically fastened. But will the building wrap survive the application of the stucco? Thanks for your input.

07/15/2026

Multi-family (MF) Construction - Why it Sucks - Part 3: Sweaty ducts – well it’s that time of year where MF managers hear complainants from tenants of high humidity, bad smells, brown spots on the drywall ceiling, dripping water from ceiling registers, & eventually bacterial growth. These slab-on-grade, 2-story townhouses were built 2022-2023. Since the “water” leaks were coming between conditioned floors, staff couldn’t understand where all the water was coming from. Must be a water pipe leak somewhere, in multiple units, at the same time... Eventually, they called us. Did not take a rocket scientist to figure out the ductwork running between floors was sweating like a pig in heat (Photos 1-2) due to massive air infiltration. A quick blower door test, which somehow none of the previous dozen contractors, investigators, consultants, etc. performed, came in at 9.8 ACH50 (local building code is 3 ACH50). We tested 3 units which ranged between 5.2-9.8 ACH50. Fun fact, the local NAHB chapter successfully lobbied to removal the blower door test from the local building code in 2019 because the $300 blower door test “cost too much” (I’m not making this up). Using some IR and smoke tracing, we discovered significant air infiltration through the 1st floor patio soffit (Photo 3), which is not connected to the vented attic, so the hot humid air has nowhere to go except through the unsealed exterior wall truss (Photo 4) until it condenses on the cold, metal ductwork (Photos 1-2). After some air sealing, air leakage rate for this unit dropped by more than 50%. Awesome job, but still significantly above code. There are over 40 of these units. We offered to test more units, management declined. This was all preventable.

05/26/2026

Nobody cares about air infiltration...until they see it...on their house....

05/18/2026

Multi-family (MF) Construction - Why it Sucks - Part 2: Standard HVAC Process - lowest bid MEP engineer designs cheapest 1st cost HVAC system using details & equipment selection from previous projects. Specified equipment on the building plans were Manufacturer A air handler & AC units. However, Manufacturer B (cheaper) air handler & AC units were installed. Manufacturer B units have higher flow rates than Manufacturer A units (Image 2). So, depending on the tap selected, actual units have higher air flow than the ducts were initially designed for, which leads to: 1) loud ducts and air handler; 2) higher energy consumption; 3) greater discomfort experienced by the tenants. Also, it does not help that the single, nonducted, return grille to mechanical closet is undersized (Image 3). Furthermore, outdoor air (OA) duct should be connected to a return duct so the OA can be filter and conditioned (Image 4). Right now, it just dumps cold, dry or hot, humid unfiltered air into the mechanical closet, hoping that it will get sucked into the air handler. As designed and installed, the amount of OA supplied to the unit will vary, resulting in under-ventilation, resulting in poor IAQ. Finally, the AC for the unit is oversized, which will result in short cycling, equipment ware-and-tare, and high indoor relative humidity. ⁠
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The most basic design review & field inspection should catch this long before it becomes an issue. But we see this OVER and OVER and OVER again. Fixing it early is orders of magnitude cheaper than fixing it later.

05/13/2026

This is why you test - Part 7: Air leakage testing. Air leakage testing is so important, I'm showing a second video on it. Preliminary air leakage testing after the enclosure component has been installed & before final interior finishes have been installed is critical to building performance, moisture management, & occupant comfort. This video shows an air leak from above grade wall-to-wall interface with a panelized wall system. Building is depressurized to -25 Pa to help pinpoint air leaks.

05/11/2026

Multi-family (MF) construction is the redheaded step child of modern day construction. Developers often sell these properties < 6 years, which means lowest first cost is king. This results in understaffed GCs, low bid (i.e. low skilled or inexperienced) subcontractors, no oversight, no coordination, & no quality assurance (QA). This picture is from a MF project near our office. There are at least 5 common errors in the installation of the windows and air & water barrier (AWB) in this image alone. This is the norm, I can reproduce similar photos from every MF project in our city & beyond. Unfortunately, tenants & future owners will be left holding the bag, which is why any type of government funding support (LIHTC, TIFs, etc.) should require 3rd party QA.

03/26/2026

Bathroom, next to the toilet, is NEVER a good place for cold drafts!

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Omaha, NE
68132

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http://www.transductiontechnologies.com/

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