Last week, I caught the second day of Building Science Corporation’s Experts’ Session. (Click the link to download the presentations from the BSC website.) Joe Lstiburek spoke the whole day about ventilation, and I’ll be writing an article about that soon. At the end of that day, though, we got a little surprise.

Eric Werling got up and gave a short presentation, making some recommendations on reconciling the differences between Joe and the ASHRAE 62.2 committee (more on that later as well, after I get a copy of his presentation). He also performed a great little song about the ventilation wars. Here it is, with the lyrics below.

Enjoy!

Mixed up IAQ and Infiltration Blues

by Eric Werling

Well, ASHRAE standard 62-89 was really fine

Way back in nineteen hundred eighty nine.

Then Max and Joe, they came along,

And ever since I been singing this song:

Got those mixed-up IAQ and infiltration blues.

One thing [no-glossary]led[/no-glossary] to another,

Now houses are really tight.

Test and seal all day long

Till there ain’t a leak in sight.

Just be careful when you’re caulking in it

Not to pass that building tightness limit,

I got those mixed-up IAQ and infiltration blues.

Now Max and Joe started getting rough,

Pretty soon they were slinging stuff

About a lousy 2 cfm per hundred square foot credit.

A hundred times I think I’ve read it,

And I’ll be damned — I still don’t get it,

I got those mixed up IAQ and infiltration blues.

But now I don’t feel so bad,

I don’t feel like I’ve been had,

Because my building science buddies are all confused too.

Just be careful when you’re caulking in it

Not to pass that building tightness limit,

I got those mixed up IAQ and infiltration blues.

I said, I got those mixed-up IAQ and infiltration blues.

Yeah, I got those IAQ mixed-up abba-dab blues.

Allison Bailes of Decatur, Georgia, is a speaker, writer, energy consultant, RESNET-certified trainer, and the author of the Energy Vanguard Blog. You can follow him on Twitter at @EnergyVanguard.