I recently sat down with builder, educator, and Build Show Network host Matt Risinger to talk about one of the fastest-evolving areas in residential construction—advanced HVAC systems—and what they mean for comfort, health, and total cost of ownership.
“I’ve been a long-time HVAC nerd,” Matt told me. “Living in my own high-performance house with a really high-performance HVAC system, I’ve gained a new understanding of what I’ve been telling clients to do and why it matters.”
For decades, HVAC “design” in housing meant dividing square footage by a rule-of-thumb tonnage and sending out a crew with flex duct and a standard furnace. That world is rapidly changing, at least for builders who want to stay relevant.
“When I started in the industry 30 years ago, there was very, very minimal design,” Matt said. “Now, I’m seeing colleagues spend real time and money on HVAC design. That gets me really excited.”
According to Matt, most builders today are running proper load calculations, right-sizing systems, and pairing tight, dry envelopes with sophisticated equipment. As Matt put it, “A great HVAC system can never overcome a poor envelope. If your house leaks, your IAQ suffers, and your clients pay the price—financially and in their health.”
Post-pandemic, comfort and health have moved from “nice-to-have” to non-negotiable.
Matt is seeing clients come in quoting health podcasters about sleep temperature and wellness routines, asking for dedicated fresh air systems, better filtration and dehumidification, and zonal controls so their bedrooms can run cooler than other living spaces.
“Clients are saying, ‘I want dehumidification, I want fresh air, I want a designed system. I want to control my bedroom separately from my living room,’” he said. “When builders offer these options, people really want them.”
In one recent project, Matt used a full Carrier system with a mix of mini-splits, low-profile ceiling cassettes, and ducted units—all tied together to deliver quiet, invisible comfort and better control.
“Carrier makes these one-way cassettes and ducted options that disappear into the architecture,” he noted. “Most guests don’t even realize that small rectangular grille is conditioning the whole space.”
Matt uses Carrier equipment regularly because his crews know the systems, the controls are robust, and the commissioning process is sophisticated enough to match the performance demands of his homes.
One of the biggest misconceptions Matt still runs into? Old-school bias against heat pumps.
“People think heat pumps mean cold air coming out of the registers,” he said. “That was true 20 or 30 years ago. It’s not true today.”
Modern heat pumps deliver hotter supply air (often 110–115°F, not 85°F), high efficiency and dramatically lower operating costs, and cold-climate performance, with some systems delivering full capacity down to -5°F. “Your parents or grandparents won’t know you don’t have a gas furnace,” Matt said. “It doesn’t feel like the old-school heat pumps.”
Layer on lower-GWP refrigerants like R-454B (Puron Advance) and we move beyond comfort to decarbonized, future-proofed systems.
Matt is a big advocate for mixing and matching technologies to get the right outcome in each space. He likes ductless mini-splits for retrofits, tricky architecture, or historic homes; ceiling cassettes where traditional ductwork doesn’t fit; and dedicated dehumidifiers (his “+D” in HVAC+D) in humid climates.
Matt’s commitment to high-performance, healthy homes is personal. “I had a daughter with really bad asthma. When we moved into my new house, which had a tight envelope, dedicated fresh air, and good filtration, her inhaler basically went away. A couple years later, she doesn’t use one at all.”
He attributes it to eliminating infiltration from an unconditioned attic, delivering fresh, filtered, dehumidified air directly to each bedroom all night, and pairing high-performance HVAC with a high-performance envelope.
Matt’s advice to builders who are nervous about proposing better systems because of price?
“When it comes to good HVAC systems, everybody wins,” he said. “Yes, a more expensive system means I make more profit as a builder—but the real benefit is a comfortable, efficient, healthy house.”
If you don’t offer advanced options up front, he warned, your clients will eventually see them somewhere else and ask, “Why didn’t you tell me this was possible?”
In a world where homeowners are finally looking at full cost of ownership—comfort, health, resilience, and monthly bills—HVAC is no longer the place to cut corners. It’s one of the primary levers builders can pull to deliver real, lasting value.
Our discussion covered far more than I can capture here—from commissioning and controls to training trades and what the next five years of HVAC innovation will look like. If you’re a builder, designer, or manufacturer trying to stay ahead of the curve on all-electric homes, healthy envelopes, and high-performance HVAC, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss. Click here to view the full interview video.