Bill Spohn is a mechanical engineer and the President and CEO of TruTech Tools. The company serves technicians in the HVAC&R and Energy Audit Industries by providing them with advanced tools and instruments. In this episode, he chats with Charlie Cichetti to discuss HVAC, Passive House, building science, and more.

“I’m gonna commit to sneezing twice a week, and what I mean by that is: I want to spread the ‘germs’ of the idea of responsible use of energy and good home performance to one consumer and one technical professional a week.” - Bill Spohn

Bill Spohn - The Environment, Engineering, and Energy

Bill grew up in an Italian-American neighborhood in the small town of Rome in New York. It was a beautiful community with a lot of great food and values, including his family’s own sensibilities regarding the environment.

With his aptitude in math and physics, he decided to take mechanical engineering, a decision backed up by library books. Putting his natural inquisitiveness to work, he took up a four-year degree at the University of Rochester. Right before graduation, he had a feeling that he would want to pursue a career path related to energy, and so he did.

Gaining the Relevant Experience

He worked with Kodak for a few years, got a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and obtained his license as a professional engineer. Shortly afterwards, he went to work for an instrumentation company called Fisher Scientific, where Bill worked closely with lab instruments.

He then transferred to Bacharach where he led an engineering team focused on HVAC. A couple of years later, with an impressive background of testing instruments under his belt, TruTech Tools came to be.

Homegrown Sustainability Advocate

Bill has always been active in waste management and energy conservation. It’s mostly thanks to his parents who grew up in the depression era. With the lessons imparted to him at a young age, he was able to become the man that he is now.

“It’s not so much the cost of energy, but it’s just being efficient with the finite resource.” - Bill Spohn

This early exposure to responsible use of energy coupled with his mentors’ influence and his penchant for engineering shaped Bill into a leader of the sustainable energy and building movement in his own right. Together with his team, he’s helping raise awareness of their advocacy two sneezes a week.

To hear more of Bill’s story on sustainable building and energy efficiency, download and listen to the episode!

Learn more about Bill Spohn and the books we reference:  

• LinkedIn
• A Pattern Language

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