2025 Hot Water & Hot Air Forums
2025-03-04 - 2025-03-06 | Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center, 375 NE Holladay Street, Portland, Oregon
Overview
Hyatt Regency Portland at the Oregon Convention Center
ACEEE’s Hot Air and Hot Water Forums are the nation’s premier policy and technical conferences devoted to improving efficiency and decarbonizing space and water heating. The Forums bring together seasoned experts and new voices each year to discuss strategies for transforming the two biggest uses of energy in buildings.
Join us in 2025 for discussions exploring efficiently producing, distributing, and using hot water and decarbonizing space heating in buildings of all kinds through heat pumps. Both Forums will explore how these industries can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills, improve grid resilience, and center equity.
Previous gatherings have attracted diverse attendees, including equipment and component manufacturers; water, gas, and electric utility professionals; and local, state, and federal agency representatives. Energy efficiency program planners, operators, evaluators, electricians, plumbers, installers, policymakers, representatives from NGOs, engineers, consultants, and other experts have found value in the sessions and great networking at the events.
Click here to see a list of organizations that participated in the 2024 Hot Air and Hot Water Forums.

Crafting High Performance Enclosures: Roofs, Walls, and Floors
2025-03-04 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
Event Description
Building enclosures – the roof, walls, and floor – are the first line of defense between nature and people. Enclosure performance is optimized when air sealing and insulation – two underappreciated and typically underperforming features – are done to high-performance standards rather than the status quo. This class covers installation — the practical application of those principles on the job site – the hands-on activities that differentiate ‘business-as-usual’ from high-performance construction. These include best practices for air sealing, insulation installation, and window installation, along with the tools and methods (e.g., blower door testing) used to measure the quality of work, and the metrics against which the work can be evaluated.
Learning Objectives

Describe preferred methods and materials used for air sealing different types of building openings, and how to test the results;
Explain the difference between conventional insulation practices and “Quality Insulation Installation (QII)” methods, and how QII is verified;
Identify five common building enclosure installation flaws and how to avoid them.
Quantify the magnitude of the gap between minimum energy code compliance and high performance, where all energy features are confirmed with building performance test methods.
