A Brief History

I've been crawling around in attics, crawl spaces and basements since I was 10 years old helping my electrician grandfather run wiring in old houses. I studied mechanical engineering at MIT in the early 1970s, doing undergraduate work on solar energy and a masters thesis on wind power. (Along the way I built the world's lightest bicycle). In 1978, I began building a small house in the NH woods, with superinsulated construction, passive solar and wood-fired hot water, a solar greenhouse, and a heat recovery ventilator due to airtight construction. I built windows with four layers of optically clear polyester film between inner and outer layers of glass. Other people asked me to help them and Energysmiths was born.

After working with dozens of homeowners on both new and existing buildings, in the early 1990s I began working in institutional, non-profit, and commercial sectors. I've worked on schools, classroom buildings, lab buildings, office buildings, museums, daycare centers, and multi-family housing. My projects include the first LEED certified building in New England, early Passive Houses, and two of the first projects certified under the stringent Living Building Challenge. I have always measured the actual performance of my projects. The experience and insights gained, combined with a sound foundation in engineering physics, inform my unique practice. I've taught thousands of architects, builders, engineers, and others the principles of building science and high performance buildings.