Tango – best dog ever.
Executive summary:
- President of Radiance Heating and Plumbing (Radianceheating.com)
- Slow ultimate player
- Builds net zero new construction and retrofits
- Not a bad swing dancer
What is your field of expertise?
Solar hot water, solar space heating (with hot water), radiant heating, radiant cooling, air-to-water heat pumps, rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, solar PV, net zero new construction, net zero retrofits. I am a green plumber.
Describe your journey to where you are today.
I’ve always been a bit of an efficiency nut, which is how I got into radiant heat. Then I realized radiant heat was a gateway to low temperature heating sources (like solar thermal and heat pumps) – a lower delivery temperature jacks up efficiency all across the board. And then last year I started saying no to gas boilers, and working with heat pumps and solar exclusively (other than repair of existing systems). Surprisingly, that has worked so far and kept the proverbial lights on in my home. I am committed to creating our low/no carbon future.
What does your company do, for who, and how does it fit into the bigger picture of solving global issues with clean tech?
We are leaders in net zero construction, both new and retrofit – with a heat pump and solar panels, in the American south, southwest, west and anywhere that is a mostly sunny climate, any home can be net zero, or at least all-electric, if it is not solar-blessed. And all-electric means we can, eventually, clean up the emissions (but gas will never be renewable, or low carbon). In our role as net zero builders, we work with home owners, construction companies, and local Authorities Having Jurisdiction (aka cities and counties) to improve their regulatory regime (attack soft costs).
What do you think is the most important thing we can be doing in terms of clean tech solutions?
Electrify everything – cars are a given, a clean grid is a given, so we are left with the challenge of heating hot water, and space conditioning as the most “sticky” of the polluting technologies that almost everyone uses.
Do you have a motto or personal quote you love? Something you feel is so powerful and yet simple you’d use it in your email signature?
Think like water.
