Talk title: "The Sound of Sausage in Swollen Standard Casings"
Nick Hurst is a carpenter-turned-building scientist, serial home remodeler, and musician who has worked on historic homes (including an 1895 Pittsburgh rowhouse), serves as a concerned committee member on ASHRAE's indoor air quality subcommittee, and consults on ventilation and radon standards. In this talk from the Westford Symposium, subtitled "The Past and Future of Ventilation Standards, Rendered Through Music," he and a musical collaborator trace the history of ventilation and indoor air quality standards through original songs and parodies, from Tredgold's early-1800s CFM-per-person rule through the energy-crisis era of tight homes and sick building syndrome, the evolution of ASHRAE 62 ventilation rates, and EPA-era scrutiny of radon, secondhand smoke, and formaldehyde. Between songs, he shares real building science stories, including a hotel-room HVAC inspection and interviews with building science experts on the origins of "build tight, ventilate right," and closes with a call to better train the next generation of indoor-air-quality-literate tradespeople.