Sam Rashkin
Title: Charting a Path to Scaling Deep Energy Retrofits and How this Impacts Building Science Research
Summary: America’s housing industry has made important strides in improving energy efficiency, with many new homes delivering better comfort, performance, and affordability for families. Voluntary programs such as ENERGY STAR Certified Homes and DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home have helped builders raise the bar for construction quality, giving families homes that perform better while keeping costs down. Today, hundreds of thousands of homes are certified to these programs, demonstrating that market-driven collaboration can deliver strong results at scale.
At the same time, the vast majority of our housing stock was built before modern construction practices, leaving households with higher utility bills and less resilient homes. Nearly 85% of existing homes were constructed before 2000, contributing to an estimated $45 billion annual energy cost burden on U.S. families—costs that fall hardest on financially struggling households. This aging housing stock presents a major opportunity for affordable, practical retrofits that reduce costs, improve comfort, and strengthen grid reliability.
To address this challenge, a coalition of housing experts and industry leaders identified a new investment strategy focused on scaling practical, market-driven energy upgrades. Building on the more than $1 trillion Americans already invest each year in home improvements and remodeling, this strategy emphasizes integrating cost-saving, resilience-enhancing measures into projects that homeowners and contractors are already undertaking.
This session will present the collaborative process used to highlight the most cost-effective, low-risk investments that strengthen U.S. housing, reduce household energy expenses, and improve grid security. The resulting research opportunities emphasize private-sector innovation, homeowner choice, and economic growth—ensuring that millions of American families can enjoy stronger, more affordable, and more resilient homes for decades to come.
Bio: Sam is a senior researcher with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Building Technologies Program working to link high-performance home innovation to the housing industry. He has earned an international reputation for leading change as national director for ENERGY STAR Certified Home and Chief Architect with the U.S. DOE Building Technologies Office directing Zero Energy Ready Home. The over three-million high-performance homes certified under these programs have had a substantial impact transforming residential energy codes in the U.S. to the equivalent of a zero-energy ready home enclosure. Based on this experience, Sam has been recognized for significant contributions to sustainable housing including the Energy and Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) Legend Award in 2019, Hanley Award in 2012, 2009 EPA Gold Medal for Exceptional Service, and Professional Builder Achievement Award in 2002. His latest book, “Housing 2.0 – A Disruption Survival Guide,” provides guidance for how high-performance builders can provide better homes for lower cost and in turn become industry leaders.
Angela Sasic Kalagasidis
Title: A 21-Year Retrospective and an Outlook on Hygrothermal Building Simulation Tools
Summary: Buildings IX in 2004 ended with a workshop called "The Greatest Modelling Showdown," showcasing advanced simulation tools for hygrothermal problems in building envelopes. Some of these tools are now commonly used in research and industry, helping to design well-functioning, efficient and durable buildings.
It's been 21 years since the workshop, during which many new building modelling and simulation tools have emerged, though only a few focus on hygrothermal design. Does this mean that our current tools are sufficient to address all design challenges? This talk will discuss the unresolved questions in design and explore how future modelling methods might revolutionize hygrothermal design in buildings and their environments.
Bio: Angela Sasic Kalagasidis is a Full Professor in Building Physics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, where she leads the Building Physics research area. Her expertise lies in numerical modelling and simulation of heat and mass transfer processes in buildings and their surrounding environments.
Her research spans a broad spectrum of topics, including building stock characteristics and energy efficiency, moisture safety of building envelopes, indoor emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), advanced materials for thermal energy storage, green roof stormwater management, the impacts of climate change, and urban heat phenomena.
Through her work, Angela contributes to the development of advanced computational tools that support the design and implementation of innovative building technologies and thermal systems.