The components of a house should work as a system. The foundation, floor, walls, windows, doors, ceiling, roof and building systems should be optimized.
Optimizing your home is balancing your investment in components with performance of those components. That’s the best way to make the most of your project budget.
For example, we can use a modeling tool to compare amount of insulation, quality of windows and other components to determine if they’re worth the cost. Does buying really great windows or using heaps of insulation really make a difference?
We’ll show you how to optimize your home to make the most of your passive systems so you can reduce the cost of your active systems. That optimization creates significant value because you avoid overspending on first cost plus operation + maintenance costs. Reducing all three costs helps you grow your wealth.*
This course compares approaches to performance, what systems to prioritize and how to optimize performance so you don’t invest any more of your budget in performance than you need to.
This course will also review challenges + solutions for existing homes, what performance documentation you should collect and how to communicate performance (and thus value) to real estate professionals, buyers and appraisers.
Topics we’ll review include the following:
Three methods of approaching home performance
Prioritizing optimized passive building systems over active systems
How energy modeling works and can be used to optimize passive systems
How specific building components can be optimized for performance
Challenges and possible solutions in existing homes
Consequences of a tighter building envelope
Documentation for performance plus verification
As always, we’ll make our review in terms you can understand and use when speaking with contractors, home inspectors, etc. We invite your questions as we go so we can be sure you get the most value out of this course.
Register now and plan to join us for a live discussion of water heating and distribution. We welcome your questions as we go. We look forward to seeing you in our Zoom presentation from 10 AM to 1 PM Eastern on April 23, 2026!
Your enrollment period (your access to the recording) is 60 days from the date of the live presentation.
Set up your free account:
You need an account to view a course. Setting up an account is free and easy to do - just click the "Enroll Now" button below.
If you're not currently signed in yet have an account, click the "Enroll Now" button and enter the email address you used for your account. The LMS will recognize your email address, prompt you for a password. Enter your password, click "Continue". The LMS will add the course to your account and open your dashboard to display all of your available courses.
If you're signed into the LMS, clicking the "Enroll Now" button will launch the course.
Each person who views the presentation and has access to the recording must purchase (or have purchased for them) their own access to this course. Learners are not permitted to share access to courses.
We'll publish a recording of the live presentation in this learning management system. We'll notify you by email when the recording is available. You may view the recording any time you choose and as many times as you wish within your enrollment period. Your enrollment period (your access to the recording) is 60 days from the date of the live presentation. It typically takes three business days for the recording to be published.
Please share your questions and guidance at any time through our Support page. (insert link)
You need an account to view a course. Setting up an account is free and easy to do - just click the "Enroll Now" button below. If you're not currently signed in yet have an account, click the "Enroll Now" button and enter the email address you used for your account. The LMS will recognize your email address, prompt you for a password. Enter your password, click "Continue". The LMS will add the course to your account and open your dashboard to display all of your available courses. If you're signed into the LMS, clicking the "Enroll Now" button will launch the course.
You can give this course to a person using the gifting feature at checkout: Click the "Enroll Now" button and then check the box to the left of the text "This is a gift". You'll be prompted to provide the recipient's email and name plus a personalized message. The recipient will receive an introductory message with your personalized note. You'll receive an email with a link to the gift. Our courses are a transformative gift of education: we teach people how to enjoy more healthy, comfortable and efficient homes and communities. Our courses are appropriate for all ages and backgrounds: homeowners, students, professionals, etc.
Your participation in this course and all other RTA events is subject to RTA's Terms of Service.
