WonderWindow Net Zero Energy Buildings

Mark Isaacs is dedicated to making Near & Net Zero Energy Buildings affordable, routine and commonplace.  Mark is an MIT-trained architect/builder/developer, now inventor/start-up entrepreneur developing affordable R5, R7, and R9 high performance window solutions through GS Research LLC, with 4 issued US patents & 1 pending.  Mark has been an AIA Approved Provider of Continuing Education, Clean Tech Open National Semi-Finalist, the recipient of the National Association of Home Builders’ Green Multi-Family Building of the Year Award for an 84,000sf Near Zero Energy Building, and recipient of an American Institute of Architects Citizen Architect Award for assisting the adoption of high performance building standards in KY, enabling others to design and build multiple Net Zero Energy schools.    

Buildings use 70% of the nation's electricity and produce 40% of its carbon emissions.  Making Near & Net Zero Energy Buildings AFFORDABLE helps solve the climate crisis AND creates energy resiliency & security.  There is no effective way of solving the climate crisis without making such buildings routine and commonplace.

R5, R7 and R9 thermal resistance windows eliminate 7 sf of framing material  for every 13 sf window installed, effectively doubling the whole building energy efficiency of newly constructed buildings.  The solution applies to about 80% of US buildings constructed.  76% of the nation's building stock will be newly built or renewed over the next 35 years.

The solution speeds the transition to a clean energy future nationally and internationally.  Living wage jobs are created in a decentralized maker manufacturing model that elevates home & community workshops to places of economic production close to the place of production.

Building codes are ratcheting up energy efficiency requirements toward requiring Net Zero Energy Buildings by 2030 in the US and 2020 in the EU, but the failure of affordable solutions has stalled many of these efforts. 

California has mandated that all new construction homes be Net Zero this year: today there are 5000 Net Zero Energy homes in the entire nation, but California aims to turn that into 100,000 Net Zero Energy homes built every  year.  However, affordability is still a barrier.

Traditional windows have wide discrepancies in the thermal resistance, or R-value of center-of-glass vs. the edge.  We improve the whole window thermal resistance by 25% just by taking center-of-glass R-value to the edge, basically having figured out how to eliminate sash & frame loss.  

Multiple parallel glazing layers create multiple insulating air spaces with R-values verified through LBNL's WINDOW program.  

Finally, we have designed windows that eliminate the need for headers, jack and cripple studs which reduces energy, material and labor cost.  The approach integrates particularly well with 24"on center framing to increase whole building thermal resistance, doubling or tripling efficiency at little or no extra cost.

Carbon-sequestering wood-framed buildings up to 4-1/2 stories account for about 80% of the buildings built every year in this country.  24”on-center framing eliminates 7sf of header & stud material & energy cost accompanying every 13sf conventional window:

• An R5 egress window in 2x6s, 24”oc costs the same or less than a 3’x6’ low-e/argon window in 2x4s,16”oc: architects & builders can double envelope energy efficiency for the same or less cost as conventional construction.

• An R9 window in 24”oc advanced framing yields PassivHaus performance at a negligible .5-2% cost premium, enabling wide adoption.

• Net Zero Energy Buildings, including rooftop solar can be built for a 6-8% cost premium, presenting a ‘holy grail’ for making Net Zero Energy Buildings AFFORDABLE, routine & commonplace.

The above results have been proven in cost and energy analyses of wall and window sections.  We will confirm these results through design and energy modeling buildings using this approach with RS Means cost detail in a range of types and scales to prove this affordable performance.  These results will be presented in Continuing Education webinars to develop demonstration projects in key targeted markets across the nation, leading to scaling up the solution with leading architects, engineers, and builders. 

Architects, engineers and builders are facing mandates to design and build Near and Net Zero Energy Buildings, but most such buildings built to date cost $300-500 per square foot.  As a result, Net Zero mandates are stalling in many locations, and such buildings remain out of reach for most.  As an experienced builder and developer, our approach aims to deliver Net Zero Energy Buildings in the $150-250 per square foot range, including the cost of rooftop solar, making them affordable for most newly constructed buildings.

The windows have been designed to be assembled in small home or workshop settings by makers with modest hand skills earning $15-20 per hour living wages per the MIT Living Wage Calculator.  The approach brings a unique approach to defining 'work' that comes with a living wage and dignity for the makers.  The Goodwill GoodWorks model has the potential to reach citizens such as Wounded Warriors, the unemployed and under-employed, and citizens of color, and low and moderate income citizens in creating meaningful contributions to the world's transition to a clean energy economy that solves the climate crisis.   

It's one thing to prove Net Zero performance in a lab or studio....and it is another to democratize the results, and make the details accessible for all in order to scale growth in making Net Zero Energy Buildings affordable, routine and commonplace.  That's what we will Elevate.

My first 2 patents were for GeoSolar heating and cooling of buildings, which I quickly realized was going to be a research project of many years, without assurance it would ever bear economic fruit.  However, this technology enabled me to become a Clean Tech Open National Semi-Finalist in 2011 where I had 'class' with startup guru Steve Blank. I learned how to engage prospects in Customer Discovery interviews resulting in 'pivots' on the way to a Minimum Viable Product and scalable repeatable business processes.  

Through this lens I began thinking of practical solutions to other key building energy problems in 2015, realizing that windows were the weakest link, and looking for simple, practical solutions.  I reached out to experts at Berkeley Labs I knew from my MIT student days who both corrected some initial misconceptions and introduced me to calculation tools that I have used to prove the performance of these multi-glazed windows.  

MS Seed Funds enabled early prototypes that I realized could act as structural stress skin panels.  Surveys of architects & builders further shaped the innovation.  My practical builder back ground enabled me to realize how these windows could cut cost in making AFFORDABLE Net Zero Energy Buildings. 

Humanity's success on the planet depends on a successful transition to a sustainable clean energy future that greatly reduces greenhouse gas in solving the climate crisis.  There is no way we get there without making Near and Net Zero Energy Buildings affordable, routine, and commonplace.  Windows are the weakest link in the building envelope.  The innovation has the potential to double or even triple the whole building energy efficiency  to make this transition AFFORDABLE NOW.

This has been a 50 year quest:   as a 14 year old boy, I first heard Buckminster Fuller talk about employing Design Science to power Spaceship Earth using renewable energy to insure 100% success for all humanity.  My application to MIT described how I really wanted to be an Integrated Life Support System designer for Spaceship Earth, but settled on architecture as the closest currently recognized trade-craft.  

As a 64 year old Evangelist-In-Chief today, I have built several Near Zero Energy Buildings, including the National Association of Home Builders Green Multi-family Building of the Year.  The technological convergence of our building envelope innovations join others like LED lighting, rooftop solar and high efficiency heat pumps to create this opportunity in Net Zero Energy AFFORDABILITY.  

An awarded Small Business Innovation Research grant will fund the testing and code certification for use in buildings by the end of 1Q2021.  I have the prototyping and technical skills to carry out this work. 

I have previous experience building a fast growing company and managing  teams with Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, & Time-boundtime-goals.  I am currently working with MBA Capstone students on developing a go-to-market strategy starting with 7 targeted Metro areas, expanding to 18 such markets to cover the nation.

EU and Canadian patents are pending to promote international expansion as well.   I have taught Net Zero Energy Building Design to the Boston Society of Architects and Saudi Aramco as an American Institute of Architects Approved Provider of Continuing Education.  Building professionals rely on Continuing Education webinars to fulfill annual mandatory licensing requirements.  Our SBIR grant provides for development of a webinar promoted on the Hanley Wood University on-demand platform, the largest in reaching US architects, engineers and builders.  HWU typically guarantees at least 3000 attendees per year for any webinar; our subject mater is particularly attractive as learning how to design and build affordable Net Zero Energy Buildings is a 'hot' topic in the field.

We have developed a decentralized maker manufacturing model working with Goodwill Industries as a Good Works project paying living wages to makers with modest hand skills and a minimum of capital equipment expense.  Windows will be produced in small workshops close to the place of use, cutting transportation energy cost. 

In 2008, I was awarded the National Association of Home Builders Green Multifamily Building of the Year for an 84,000 sf Near Zero Energy Building...and then the Great Recession came and put our heretofore successful integrated design/build/develop business out of business.  In the city of my birth where the parents of the current Mayor had asked me to run for Mayor, I suddenly lost wealth and reputation as the business failure became front page news.  Seeing that real estate was going to remain depressed for years to come, I realized that I was not going to be building hundreds of millions of dollars worth of 'Green Template' Near and Net Zero Energy Buildings anytime soon.  My wife and I moved to the Gulf Coast in 2010 to start life anew.

No longer having to make payroll for hundreds of workers, I now had the 'luxury' (on my 'ramen noodle' budget) of being able to think about practical game-changing innovations that could improve the state-of-the-art. 4 patents & 3 patents pending later, I have been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant to test and code-certify my windows, and bring them to market.  Perservering through failure leads to sudden 'overnight' success.   

I was the only Jew at an event listening to a Palestinian talk about his people's oppression.  In response to a question I asked, he made clear that he advocated violence to free Palestine.  Feeling a bit like Daniel in the lion's den, I saw a Palestinian-American engineer I knew, saying: "I don't know if you and I can solve the problem over there, but do you think it might be a good idea to get  people together from our respective communities to talk?" 

Our small group started with coffee and baklava that turned into dinners in each others' homes as we became Together for Two States.  We forged a consensus outline for peace based on our knowledge of realities on the ground there.  

In 2005, my engineer friend and I each ran up $10,000+ credit card bills to bring Palestinian and Israeli teen musicians together here in The Making Harmony project.  The teens made beautiful music for over 5000 people, culminating in singing John Lennon's "Imagine" together arm-in-arm: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."  There was not a dry eye in the place.   An interfaith organization gave us a special Moral Courage Award.

WonderWindow is a product of GS Research LLC, owned by a trust for the benefit of the inventor's family.

The approach doubles whole building energy efficiency at no extra cost and triples energy efficiency and delivers rooftop solar for Net Zero Energy performance at 6-8% extra cost.

The approach recognizes that change is created by affordable solutions, not necessarily the most technologically sophisticated solutions which typically add greatly to cost.  Other approaches are very 'smart', but often not 'wise', as they rely on costly solutions. 

Our approach does simple things right.  In so doing, it seeks to be both 'smart' and 'wise'.

Buckminster Fuller famously and provocatively said "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."  In short, that is what we are doing.  In our case, the 'invention' is both the technical aspects and details outlined herein, but it is also understanding the context of what it takes to bring the technical invention to market to meet the affordability needs of architects, builders and engineers by an inventor who IS an architect and builder who understands the 'pain' and price points that lead to actual adoption.  Surveys of early adopter architects and builders have shaped the approach early on and will continue to inform the approach.

Existing material supply chain networks are harnessed such as national distributors providing cut-to-measure glazing.  The Goodwill Good Works model taps into a network with potential national reach in being scalable and repeatable.

The approach defies traditional enterprise development models in remaining lean with quality assurance.  While the approach was developed pre-COVID, it happens to adapt to yield income opportunities that need not be tethered to large centralized factories where the infection can spread.   

Today, it might be said that we serve 1 person in giving the Founder and Chief Everything Officer a focus of attention 24/7/365.  However, the CEO's efforts have leveraged the work of a 5 member team of MBA Capstone students who are already accomplished professionals.

In 1 year, we will be have 10 demonstration projects underway, with at least 100 more in the pipeline.  1000 or more architects, engineers and builders will have been reached through our online continuing education webinars.  Tens of Good Works makers will have been hired, trained and started their living wage contributions to a clean energy economy.

In 5 years, we expect to approach $100 million in sales with architects and builders using our approach in the US and Canada and EU expansion underway. 10-20,000 Net Zero Energy homes and 3000+ Net Zero commercial buildings will be constructed annually with this approach.  5000 or more architects, engineers and builders will be taking our online continuing education webinars every year, with over 20,000 total reached by 2025.  Hundreds of Good Works makers will be making living wage contributions to a clean energy economy.

One Year Goals:

1. Test and code certify windows to enable use in buildings.

2. Demonstrate the windows in specific key target markets in visible buildings with early adopter and high growth potential.

3. Secure Phase 2 SBIR funding to expand capabilities and product line, making the solution applicable to more building types and tastes.  

4. Pilot the maker manufacturing model with Goodwill Industries' Good Works and/or others.

Five Year Goals:

1.  Make affordable Net Zero Energy Buildings routine and commonplace: the new norm in new buildings.

2. Scale and expand national markets with established maker manufacturers serving their localities with a 21st century approach to clean tech manufacturing that elevates the maker as a contributor to the clean energy transition.

3. Enable the achievement of the American Institute of Architects' Net Zero Energy 2030 Goals ahead of 2030 to enable a successful planetary transition to a sustainable clean energy economy that solves the climate crisis. 

One Year:

1. The Minimum Viable product will be offered in limited sizes that don't meet all needs.

2. Some will object to acrylic glazed windows because they are not traditional glass windows, some rejecting something new, and some rejecting on the basis of what they perceive as durability issues.

5 years:

Some will still object to acrylic glazed windows because they are not traditional glass windows, some still rejecting something new, and some rejecting on the basis of what they continue to perceive s durability issues.

However, there will be a growing body of evidence that proves otherwise.

1. The size limitation issue will be addressed through our Phase 2 R&D Work Plan that will prove enhanced structural capabilities, so we can offer wider windows in more sizes and operating types.

2. The novelty objection will be addressed by a body of successful demonstration projects.

3. The perceived durability issue will be addressed by sacrificial coatings and/or films that further protect the glazing from scratches and UV.  The growing body of successful demonstration buildings and a strong warranty program will also ensure maximum impact.

Other window innovations like low e glass and PVC frame windows overcame similar objections to become the current state-of-the-art, which has not seen measurable improvement since. 

I coordinate my efforts with the Department of Energy Building Technology Office and Berkeley Labs' Window and Daylighting experts, even though my SBIR is funded through USDA. NSF has invited me to submit a proposal.

The R&D team expands to include 3 Departments at MS State University: Architecture, Civil Engineering (Structural), and the Sustainable Bio-products Structural Test Lab.  

Intertek, the world's largest architectural testing lab, has their Plano and Fresno offices contracted to provide testing services.

The International Codes Council Evaluation Services is contracted to provide Quality Assurance and certification services.

MS State University Capstone MBA student teams provide go-to-market assistance. 

We sell at a 33% gross margin in a lean organizational model designed to be repeatable and scalable from inception. 

Current grants get us to Minimum Viable Products that provide bootstrapping income to scale and grow the business.  Additional grants will expand the capabilities and product offerings.

The business model has been designed for bootstrapping from the beginning, requiring modest hand skills and capital investment.  Most Venture Capitalists will not see high enough margins to attract their attention, but I am certainly open to discussion.

The Elevate Prize speeds our go-to-market and outreach.

The current $106,500 USDA SBIR grant gets our testing and certification completed, and supports go-to-market through the Hanley Wood webinar platform, the AIA National Conference and the International Builders Show.  This will get us to first earned income.   

It builds upon a previous $100,000 USDA SBIR $100,000 grant, a $10,000 MS Seed Fund non-recourse loan, and several Phase 0 mini-grants of $2000 each. 

Phase 2 grant funding, if successful, will provide 2 years of support at $300,000 per year to expand capabilities and product offerings.

An additional $50,000 is provided with the Phase 2 grant to support commercialization over this time period. The Elevate Prize adds to this to provide assurance of success in scale up and growth that maintains quality & 'community' satisfaction.

Two thirds of the $106.500 USDA grant will be spent in 2020 with the remainder spent in 2021.

As a lean organization, we can continue to 'survive' if grant funding evaporates.

The Elevate Prize will speed our outreach and adoption such that the AIA's Net Zero Energy 2030 Goal is reached on time or ahead of schedule.  

Successful demonstrations will become case studies for future webinars, seeding continuing adoption.    

See Why applying above.

AIA and NAHB: webinars, meetings and conferences

NYSERDA, ETCC, CalSEED, & MASS Clean Energy: establish presence in essential early adopter markets 

DOE BTO: get on their Roadmap