Southface

Southface experts Mike Barcik and Joey Starr explain concepts and best practices in high performance home design. This course consists of a video training, slide deck, and exam. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will receive a certificate of completion for CEUs from ICC, AIA, BPI, and RESNET. The full video has a runtime of 1 hour, 15 minutes. The full slide deck is provided for free download in the Resources module The exam consists of 10 multiple choice questions This webinar is intended for architects, designers, builders, and raters of new homes. The webinar begins with an overview of building science and the house-as-a-system approach. Participants will apply this knowledge to total-home performance and the features it entails. This webinar will show participants best practices for designing a high-performance home, with a focus on efficiency, comfort, health, durability and environmental awareness. Participants will discover that high-performance homes begin with an enhanced design effort but don’t have to have increased construction costs. Southface will present several EarthCraft projects as case studies. Read more

Welcome to Community Composting 101! This course provides an overview of the importance of and science behind composting, and recommended best practices for implementing community composting programs.  This course includes a course introduction and seven video-based training modules. Each of the training modules are followed by a 5-question knowledge check assessment, which you will need to pass in order to progress to the next module. A Supplemental Resources Master Document, which provides links to resources referenced in the presentations, is available in the Resource Library. Within each module, key vocabulary words will be bolded and italicized as they are introduced. A full glossary of relevant terminology is linked to in the Supplemental Resources Master Document. In order to receive a certificate of completion, you will need to watch each video-based module, complete the knowledge check that follows each module and achieve an 80% score for the final exam. Please submit feedback on this course using this form. Thank you for participating! Read more

This one-hour course includes video content, a downloadable study guide to be completed during the course, and a final quiz. Upon successful completion of this course, participants are will receive a certificate approved for CEUs from AIA, BPI, and ICC. In this course, Southface Technical Principal Mike Barcik provides a video demonstration of the Southface "House of Pressure" (HoP) simulator. This special equipment allows learners to see how a leaky house or duct system can waste energy and create potential health and safety hazards due to backdrafting in the combustion appliance zone (CAZ) or other sources of unwanted air. In addition, participants will learn simple ways to diagnose and address ventilation and air-leakage problems in the residential setting.  The HoP is a life-size cutaway model of a "typical" house and includes various simulated zones such as a living room, bedroom, bath, attic/crawl, and kitchen, as well as actual combustion appliances (water heater and furnace), heat exchanger and cooling coils, exhaust flues, and a duct system. The simulator also has built-in analog pressure gauges and a number of vents used to simulate various conditions. Theatrical fog is used to provide a visual understanding of how air and fumes move under different conditions. (Special thanks to Vertical River for video production.) Read more

This module is for real estate professionals who participated in an instructor-led "Selling Sustainability" webinar. Participants must pass the exam in order to receive your Certificate of Completion. EarthCraft Real Estate Professionals draw on their knowledge to present and market EarthCraft and other high-performance homes to green property buyers. Certified Real Estate Professionals can translate sustainable features into benefits and have the expertise on policy and mortgage incentives for purchasing energy-efficient buildings. Read more

This module is for the EarthCraft Builder Exam only.  Students must complete the EarthCraft Builder training first in order to receive credit for completing this exam. Read more

Southface experts Mike Barcik and Joey Starr describe best practices and procedures for assessing and resolving combustion safety issues in various contexts within the residential setting.  This course consists of a video training, slide deck, and exam. Upon successful completion of this course, participants will receive a certificate of completion for CEUs from ICC, AIA, BPI, and RESNET. The full video has a runtime of 1 hour, 17 minutes. The full slide deck is provided for free download in the Resources module The exam consists of 10 multiple choice questions. Read more