Hitchhiker’s Guide to FREE Building Science Resources in the PNW

The purpose of this post is to drive awareness (to those in the building industry) of the mountain of building science resources that are freely available but might not be well-known. The fact is we probably get most of our “learning” one YouTube short or Instagram reel at a time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Given our hectic lives, sometimes a 10-second video clip is enough to get the gist.

But the reality is that our customers put a TON of trust and faith in us, we owe it to them to do our research to the best of our ability, and most of the time, our decisioning process shouldn’t end at the end of a social media clip from our favorite followers. Rather, it should begin there.

And what if you’ve got a specific scenario which isn’t covered by something in your current feed. What then? You need something more than friggin’ Google, and yes, more than ChatGPT, too.

This content has a focus more on resources in the PNW and is geared towards builders, though a lot of these resources have customer-focused content as well.

By the way, I am assuming you are very familiar with the treasure troves on Building Science Corp (free), Green Building Advisor (free and paywalled), Fine Homebuilding a.k.a. my monthly porno mag (free and paywalled), and JLC magazine (free??). Those are all great resources and I subscribe to all of them except GBA at this moment. I’m not here to talk about them because you already know about them. I’m here to talk about the ones you may not know about and that perhaps you should.

Final comment and we’ll get going, this is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list and I’ll likely be adding to it from time to time. And if you think there’s something which should be included here, then leave a comment here and I promise I’ll take it in and update the post if I think it makes sense to do so.

Okay, here we go!

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)

Originally, the PNNL was formed to mine plutonium in the 1940’s as part of the Manhattan Project at its Hanford site. Nowadays, it covers many research areas and many “core capabilities” recognized by the US Department of Energy, energy conservation and efficient consumption being some of them. One area I personally am very interested in is the national lab’s scientific and technological knowledge to create tangible solutions for achieving net-zero emissions. You can read more about that here.

Building America Solution Center (BASC)

Building Assembly Details

BASC’s Climate-Specific Building Assemblies is an interactive tool designed to help builders select foundation, wall, and roof construction assemblies that meet 2021 IECC and 2021 IRC requirements for thermal efficiency and condensation control. To start, you pick your climate zone or enter the project ZIP code, and the tool will present you with a list of common building assemblies for that area which meet 2021 IECC and 2021 IRC codes. Detailed notes are included. All assemblies are downloadable. There’s likely a corresponding CAD file you can download for these assemblies, too.

4C Marine building assemblies.

Below are wall and window assembly details for a vented attic, strapped 2×6, interior insulated basement.

All these details are freely downloadable in PDF and PNG formats, and it’s very likely there are also CAD files for them to download, too.

Resource Guides, Library, and Image Gallery

There are hundreds of Resource Guides broken down by construction type, climate zone, etc. (e.g. Air Leakage Testing Garage to House Air Barrier, existing home guides, advanced framing techniques)

There is a Massive Library (Date descending) of thousands of free building science resources which might have also been sourced elsewhere (e.g. BSC.com, GBA) but BASC has curated into their own. Definitely worth checking out.

BASC has also compiled a large image gallery which can be downloaded and included in your own internal or external content. Use it however you like. NO PAYWALL ANYWHERE. Great, right?

There are also a couple hundred presentations and webinars you can consume as well.

Home Improvement Expert

The Home Improvement Expert™ is perhaps a “shortcut” to the building science checklists for enclosure upgrades, heating and cooling, fresh air systems, and water heating. These useful checklists are downloadable PDF’s in English and Spanish for builders and their clients to use as a way to manage expectations in both directions.

Often appended to these building science checklists are one more detailed guides for the activity chosen, including a pre-assessment of the checklist activity you’ve chosen. Take this vented to unvented crawlspace conversion example, there are several detailed guides which also include specific compliance requirements, too.

Or, if you want to start offering this as a service, there’s a “Sales” tab in the guide to show you how to do that, too. Ask yourself, do you see this level of breadth and depth in the typical builder/SME publications that you pay for? Not to this level, no.

Existing Homes

The Existing Homes section has installation guidance for making existing homes more energy efficient, comfortable, and less expensive to operate. The tool is designed around common upgrades. Steps are numbered to indicate priorities from a health and safety standpoint. If you are doing a comprehensive renovation, you may be interested in all the listed steps. If you are doing a more limited project, such as insulating an attic, reroofing, or replacing a water heater, you may focus on just a few steps.

It is worth visiting the first section no matter what project you have in mind. Nine assessment guides are listed to help gauge whether a home is safe and sound for upgrades plus a guide to help consumers plan a series of upgrades over time. These guides may help ensure that projects (and bids and contracts) cover related upgrades and are completed in the correct sequence.

Sales Tool

You often hear HP builders/leaders/influencers that most of their clients are more interested in comfort and health than ‘high performance’, ‘zero energy’, and decarbonization. They don’t care as much about building science! BASC’s Sales Tool helps builders translate industry jargon into terms which we can use in all of their consumer-facing materials.

The table below contains just a few examples of how builders can reframe the conversation to achieve a higher chance of customer penetration. The full list is available on the Sales Tool link provided above.

Technical Term	Alternate Terms	Sales Message
High performance home	Enhanced Comfort HomeEnhanced Health HomeHigh-Efficiency HomeEnhanced Durability Home	High-performance homes are energy efficient while improving comfort, health, safety, and durability. What this means to you is a better living experience along with significantly lower utility bills. Wouldn’t you agree every new home should be constructed this way?
High-efficiency window	Enhanced comfort window Quiet window Advanced window technology	High-efficiency windows effectively block unwanted heat gain in summer while retaining your home’s heat in winter. What this means to you is less wasted energy along with enhanced comfort and noise reduction. Wouldn’t you agree high-efficiency windows should be included in every new home?
High-R Insulation	High-efficiency insulation Ultra-efficient insulation Enhanced comfort insulation	High-efficiency insulation helps provide added thermal protection. What this means to you is less wasted energy along with enhanced comfort and quiet. Knowing there is only one opportunity during construction to lock in your home’s thermal protection, wouldn’t you agree high-efficiency insulation that meets or exceeds future codes is a great investment?
Thermal Mass	Natural comfort balancing system Energy-saving natural comfort balancing	Natural comfort balancing system integrates architectural materials that can store the solar heat to avoid excessive heat gain. What this means to you is a home with free heating and cooling, and radiant comfort. Wouldn’t agree it’s smart to optimize the ability to use naturally available heating and cooling?

There are many other sales terms / translations on their site. Go check them out!

Other valuable resources

• Downloadable CAD files (some pulled from GBA which a lot were drawn originally by Steve Baczek).
• 700+ Case Studies
• Code Briefs
• PNNL Events
• https://www.pnnl.gov/residential-buildings
• Research Tracker if you’re interested in finding research projects around the country relevant to your work.
• RED Calc – tool for ventilation sizing, airflow measurement, insulation, moisture, domestic hot water, electrical usage, weather data

Other programs and guides (BASC and beyond)

Building Science Education

BSE provides curated and free-to-use training materials on the fundamentals of building science. The materials cover residential and commercial building types. You can explore content by area, occupation, level, and so on.

Again, it’s free and about as unbiased as you’re going to get.  

Though BSE isn’t specifically under PNNL’s purview, I’ve included it here because it is also under the US Department of Energy.

Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA)

NEEA is an alliance of utilities and partners that pools resources and shares risks to transform the market for energy efficiency to the benefit of all consumers in the Northwest. Established in 1996, over 140 utilities server 13 M consumers. HQ in Portland.

Key Findings from their heat pump symposium in Oct. 2024:

• About half of heat pump installs are tagged “successful”, while 35% underperform and 15% perform poorly.
• Energy Demand: Northwest power consumption is rising, with projections indicating that demand will outpace system resources by 2030  due to transportation and building-sector electrification.
• HVAC contractors continue to oversize heat pump installs to match the current install which is also oversized.

Hosts a centralized data set of end use load research in the Northwest. You can access it for free here: Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) | Energy Metering Study…

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Northwest Eco Building Guild

Founded in 1993, the NW Eco Building Guild is a non-profit community-based organization of builders, suppliers, and partners concerned with ecological building in the PNW.

Mission Statement: OUR MISSION is to support through education the progressive work of our members in the Pacific Northwest in order to improve the relationship between our communities and our built environment…

 There is a membership fee, but you are not required to be a member in order to attend their events.

Green Home Tour

The Guild is most known for their Northwest Green Home Tour, which is a free, self-guided event that is open to the public and which showcases local, sustainable, and green new homes, remodels, DADU’s, and energy retrofits in the Seattle Area. This year will be held on April 26, 2025.  

Upcoming Guild Events

Events are listed here and seem to be held at South Seattle College in Georgetown (Seattle) as well as virtually. Events are free but the Guild does ask for donations.

• 4/23: Low Carbon Concrete
• 4/26: Northwest Green Home Tour
• 6/25: Steps to futurize a home
• 7/23: Sustainable prefab wall systems

Last but certainly not least…the Diagnostic Tool Lending Library

The Seattle-based Smart Buildings Center (SBC) provides a lending library of diagnostic tools for short-term data collection on energy. It has a range of data loggers, power meters, lighting loggers, blower doors, infrared cameras, liquid and air flow measurement devices, and much more.

To check out a tool, you simply need to provide proof of insurance and create an SBC account (free). You can check out tools in-person or they can ship them to you.

Caveat: The library is mainly intended for commercial and industrial use, though they’re willing to make an exception on a case-by-case basis. Multi-family IS commercial, FYI.

Tool Library Contact:

Melissa Sokolowsky
Senior Project Manager
206-538-0685
tool-library@smartbuildingscenter.org

Built Green [Certification]

Built Green is the green home certification program of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS). They tout that Built Green is the most popular certification available in the region. For example, as of 2019, 73% of new homes built in the region (over 36 K) are Built Green certified. Built Green’s certification includes criteria which is region-specific unlike the international certifications such as Passive House, LEED, Net Zero.

Also worth noting is that the City of Seattle now recognizes Built Green certification is [nearly] equivalent to LEED Platinum. You can read this ruling here.

Note that in order to be certified, you must also be an MBAKS member which is currently $595 annually, but that includes NAHB and BIAW membership, too. The certification cost for a single-family home is a little less than the others.

In addition to certifying green homes, remodels, apartments, and communities, Built Green hosts a membership network of companies and individuals involved in the green building industry. They also research and communicate the human and environmental benefits of ecologically focused building.

Builder Resources includes a lot of different resource types such as guides, sales/marketing materials for building green, infographics, etc. What’s nice is the resources’ regional relevance which should save you time since you don’t need to tweak it at all or minimally, at least. Consumer Resources are here.

Built Green does have an event calendar but it was empty for the next couple of months when I checked.

Eco-Cool Remodeling Tool

Built Green hosts a pretty nifty remodeling visualization and learning tool called the Eco-Cool Remodeling Tool, which can be a great learning tool for you and especially, your clients. You click on an area like ‘Kitchen’ or ‘Bathroom’, and it’ll provide detailed guidance, design choices, external resources, and even links to eco-friendly and LOCAL suppliers!

Full Disclaimer: I haven’t fully tested this app nor read through all of its guidance, so YMMV. I also don’t know how often the material is updated, either. I’ll reach out to the Built Green folks to find out.

Honorable Mentions

Below is a list of other resources which you might find useful. For example, I like the DSIRE database because it maintains a list of all the builder and buyer incentives available which is comes in handy when presenting a total cost breakdown to a client. That is, their seeing a $$$ tax credit might be the decision factor for going forward with a project.

Resource	Description
Green Building Handbook	The King County Green Building Handbook is your guide to increasing efficiency in your next home project. Whether you’re building new, remodeling, or replacing old systems, we have strategies that will help you make healthier, more sustainable, and potentially cost-saving decisions.
	The DSIRE Database is searchable database provides information on incentives and policies that support renewables and energy efficiency in the U.S. Washington (113 incentives) Oregon (131 incentives)   E.g. Renewable Energy System Incentive Program up to $40k in tax credits ($5k/yr) E.g. Multifamily incentive: Evergreen…for Affordable Housing
Seattle Green Building Permit Incentives	Aimed to create more efficient building that center around clean electric energy, water, and resource conversation with a focus on human health. Projects can gain additional height, or floor area in exchange for meeting specific green building goals and certifications.
Building Transparency	Non-profit whose core mission is to provide the open data and tools needed to inspire actions that positively impact our world. They maintain the: – Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) – Tally Life Cycle Assessment (tallyLCA) which helps quantify the environmental impact of building materials. (Free trial) – Largest open-access database of digital, 3rd-party verified EPD’s
Best Practices Manual	H&H is a Seattle-local high-performance builder known for high quality craftmanship. Their Best Practices Manual is a great resource, and it speaks to their dedication to “open-sourcing” their hard-won knowledge and lessons learned.
	Maintained list of green building codes and initiatives. Many EcoBuilding Guild and OMB members will remember the Green Development stakeholder process convened by Thurston County in 2009. One idea that rose to the top was to create a database of green building techniques to help builders and code officials share information about innovative techniques.
	While RDH is an international for-profit business, they are committed to pushing out invaluable content in their technical library. And while most of their content is geared towards commercial and industrial applications, there is A LOT of relevance in the residential space. In fact, the residential space is typically 10-100 years behind commercial building science, so it’s worth a look on the “other side”. They have offices in the PNW, so I included them.

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Conclusion

Well, that’s all I’ve got, folks. If you found one thing useful, then it was worth it. Please leave a comment below to tell me either way. Thanks!