Design & construction
Zero-net-energy homes, deep energy retrofits, high-performance enclosures, right-sized HVAC, and the construction details that make the design work.
MIKE MACFARLAND · BUILDING SCIENCE IN PRACTICE
Designed to excel.
Built to perform.
Measured to prove it.
High-performance design and construction. Deep HVAC expertise. Field research that stands up to real-world conditions.
From benchmark zero-net-energy homes to twelve years at the Central Valley Research Homes, Mike brings the experience to design it, install it, instrument it, and understand how it performs.
THE BONHURST ZNE HOME · REDDINGAll-electric by design.
More energy than it uses annually.Explore the signature project
More energy than it uses annually.Explore the signature project
A BROAD RECORD OF COLLABORATION
Selected organizations
Mike has worked with.
Field research & instrumentation
HVAC research & technical consulting
Program design, training & retrofits
Lead Locally design & installation
CVRH research collaboration
Commercial HVAC field verificationFormerly DNV GL
California Energy Commission
Building standards support
through project teamsBruce A. Wilcox, P.E.
Building science & Title 24 research
EXPERTISE ACROSS THE WHOLE PROJECT
From the building details
to the meaning in the data.
Research teams, utilities, and project partners need someone who understands both the science and the work on site. That is where Energy Docs excels.
Field installation & commissioning
Hands-on installation of heat pumps, hydronic systems, ducts, controls, and experimental equipment. Measured commissioning and persistent troubleshooting.
Instrumentation & research
Custom monitoring boxes, sensor integration, Campbell Scientific systems, experiment execution, and dependable field operation over complete seasons.
Analysis & technical leadership
Daily data review, clear technical reports, design consultation, practical guidance, and training that connects research findings to better building practice.
REDDING ZNE FIELD STUDY 01 / DESIGN · BUILD · VERIFY
Bonhurst.
All-electric.
Energy to spare.
Mike deliberately designed and built Bonhurst without a natural gas connection, even though gas was available at the site. In a full year of monitoring, its solar array produced substantially more energy on site than the home used for all purposes—including heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, and appliances.
Thousands of driving miles
from surplus solar.
About 9,200 EV miles per year.
Illustrative equivalent of the measured annual surplus, assuming 30 kWh per 100 miles including charging losses. See the calculation and assumptions ↗
Even during Redding’s hottest summer days, every room stayed below 70°F while the cooling system drew less power than a common hair dryer. That performance comes from the high-performance design and careful installation of the home’s insulation, air sealing, ductwork, and mechanical systems.
Just 19 solar panels fit on the west-facing rear roof, keeping the front roofline clear. Over the full study year, they covered every household energy use and produced 2,761 kWh to spare—energy that could support thousands of miles of plug-in EV driving.
Bonhurst was the first Energy Docs home published with Davis Energy Group / Frontier Energy—and the highest-performing residence they had monitored.
See the Bonhurst story¾ tonheat-pump capacity
for a 2,372 sq ft home
for a 2,372 sq ft home
Below 70°Fin every room
during the hottest days
during the hottest days
19 panelscompact solar array
on the rear roof
on the rear roof
Energy to sparesolar generation exceeds
all annual household energy use
all annual household energy use
Room-by-room summer comfort reflects Mike’s field observations. Annual energy measured July 2017–June 2018. Solar: 8,052 kWh; total electricity use: 5,291 kWh, including research monitoring equipment. All household uses are included. Results apply to this home and study period. Read the original monitoring report (opens in a new tab)
REDDING ZNE FIELD STUDY 02 / ALL-ELECTRIC · DESIGN FOR BUILDABILITY
The next all-electric home.
Built by local trades.
Like Bonhurst, the second Redding home was deliberately all-electric: natural gas was available at the site, and Mike’s design left it unconnected. The next challenge was to carry Bonhurst’s lessons into a home that readily available local trades could build.
Put the expertise
into the plans.
Mike translated the building science into stud-by-stud framing plans, detailed HVAC layouts, and specified plumbing materials. Electric systems serve heating, cooling, hot water, cooking, and other household needs. Selected enclosure details were simplified for conventional construction crews.
Local contractors carried out the work, with Mike providing the design, limited construction feedback, and diagnostic testing of the completed home. The project tested how much of Bonhurst’s performance could be carried forward through clear documentation and coordinated trades.
Explore the ZNE 02 project
2,366 sq ftall-electric home
completed in 2019
completed in 2019
1 tonducted heat-pump capacity
1.0 ACH50measured enclosure leakage
2,612 kWhmeasured annual
heating + cooling electricity
heating + cooling electricity
Measured August 2019–July 2020. The study counts all household electricity, including space conditioning, pool, and hot-tub use. Solar offset 83% of that total, or 108% excluding the pool and hot tub. Read the second Redding monitoring report (opens in a new tab)
CENTRAL VALLEY RESEARCH HOMES
Twelve years.
Hands on. Year round.
The long view matters. Mike’s CVRH work spans system installation, commissioning, monitoring, experiment execution, site operations, data review, and technical reporting.
A research program is only as strong as the work that keeps its experiments running.
Mike began with the installation and commissioning team and became the primary contractor for project tasks in 2020. His responsibilities extended across all four research sites—from replacing HVAC systems and building test configurations to maintaining monitoring and control systems and reviewing daily data.
- Variable-capacity and fixed-capacity heat pumps
- Duct configuration, leakage, airflow, and distribution efficiency
- Refrigerant charge, thermostats, and control behavior
- Air-to-water heat pumps, hydronics, and water heating
LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY
Research at
California scale.
Field audits. Custom data boxes. Sixteen monitored homes. More than a year in the field.
In addition to the 16 monitored homes, Energy Docs staff visited 40 other homes randomly selected across California. During a one-day visit to each home, they analyzed and documented its energy features and compared the findings with site load calculations.
Power, airflow, pressure, temperature, and humidity measurements had to remain useful through changing seasons and real operating conditions. That takes instrumentation knowledge, installation skill, and sustained attention to the systems and the data.
See the field-research programA BROADER RECORD OF PERFORMANCE
Homes. Programs.
Buildings. Better practice.
The expertise comes from building and improving real projects—and staying involved long enough to understand the results.
AFFORDABLE ZERO-NET-ENERGY HOMES
Make high performance
practical and repeatable.
Work on affordable ZNE homes and coauthorship of Real-World ZNE Homes for California bring integrated design and efficient systems to a wider building audience.
Read the ZNE design book (opens in a new tab)A 20-home deep energy retrofit pilot.
Mike brought whole-home design, HVAC and distribution expertise, monitoring, consulting, and measured commissioning to REU’s residential retrofit pilot. The work connected improvements in individual homes with lessons for a broader utility program.
Related reading: Measured Home Performance: Best Practices for Home Energy Retrofits, Rick Chitwood and Lew Harriman, ASHRAE Journal, January 2012. ASHRAE article listing ↗
Better programs. More capable practitioners.
Rebate-program design, technical consulting, mentoring, and training helped REU turn building-science knowledge into practical work. Mike supported contractors and raters in applying that knowledge in the field, with monitoring and testing to understand the results.
Performance at the facility scale.
Mike’s REU work also included the retrofit of its 28,000-square-foot all-electric operations facility, bringing design consultation, commissioning, and extensive performance testing to a commercial building.
Air-to-water heat pumps and electrification.
Design and field installation experience integrating hydronic systems, radiant distribution, water heating, and load-reduction retrofits.
MIKE MACFARLAND
A builder’s mastery.
A researcher’s discipline.
Licensed California Contractor
CSLB #742178
Mike’s expertise runs all the way through a project: design the building, install the systems, build the measurement tools, and stay with the data.
More than three decades of residential and light-commercial construction inform his work in high-performance buildings, advanced HVAC, deep energy retrofits, and field research. He understands the building as a system because he has worked on the details that make it function.
His research experience includes twelve years at CVRH, field and laboratory support for Frontier Energy / Davis Energy Group, and California-wide studies for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His technical work connects construction and commissioning with instrumentation, analysis, and useful guidance.
Mike is also a co-founder of the Dry Climate Forum, a former lead trainer for the California Building Performance Contractors Association, and a former instructor at PG&E’s Energy Training Center. He has taught and presented on home performance, HVAC design, data logging, and measured results.
Whole-building designAdvanced diagnosticsHeat pumps & hydronicsControls & data acquisitionCAD & custom field toolsTechnical teaching
PUBLICATIONS & INDUSTRY EDUCATION
Field experience.
Shared with the industry.
Mike writes, teaches, and collaborates on guidance that helps other practitioners design, install, and commission better-performing systems.
CVRH 2024-2025 Annual Field Evaluation of Dual-Fuel Heat Pump Retrofit Options
Caleb · Central Valley Research Homes
ETCC link forthcoming
CVRH 2024-2025 Variable-Capacity and Single-Speed Heat Pump Replacement Options with Attic Distribution Variants
Grange · Central Valley Research Homes
ETCC link forthcoming
Dual-Site Evaluation of LG Monoblock Hydronic Heat Pump Operation
LG dual-site study · Central Valley Research Homes
ETCC link forthcoming
Residential Variable Capacity Heat Pumps
Best practices for selection, design, installation, and commissioning.
Real-World ZNE Homes for California
Practical approaches to affordable zero-net-energy design and construction.
Variable Capacity Heat Pumps: Refrigerant Charge Effects
Central Valley Research Homes field evaluation, 2019–2020.
Quality, Efficiency & Performance
California Energy Commission presentation on installation quality and measured performance.
Affordable Zero Net Energy Design & Construction
GTI Energy training on high-performance HVAC and hot water.
PUT THE EXPERIENCE TO WORK
Bring the difficult
questions.
A demanding design. A field study. An HVAC problem that needs a deeper answer.
Talk with Mike about research partnerships, technical consulting, high-performance design, field installation, and monitoring.
Energy Docs Home Performance Contractor, Inc.
Redding, California · CSLB #742178