4. 'There’s No Such Thing as a Free Thermodynamic Lunch'

The building industry needs to share its failures so future projects can be better, says John Straube, Ph.D., P.Eng., Associate Member ASHRAE. In this episode, John and Joseph Lstiburek, Ph.D., P.Eng., Fellow ASHRAE, discuss why human judgment is critical to a better built environment.

John and Joe start the episode by talking about how “there’s no such thing as a free thermodynamic lunch” (1:57) and the unintended consequences of striving for increased energy efficiency, sustainability and carbon neutrality (2:12).

Then, they discuss why it is important for the building industry to openly talk about failures so that professionals may build on the lessons from the past (4:27). John and Joe also talk about the importance of understanding building science to help diagnose problems and prevent future failures, and later, dive into lessons learned from building materials and enclosures as well as challenges from COVID-19 mitigation recommendations, such as ventilation and humidity (17:47).