Henry Gifford has worked with Chris Benedict for 28 years designing mechanical systems for 100+ energy efficient buildings, including the first energy efficient apartments buildings in New York City (the first anyone even said were energy efficient). His work cuts through technical myths and complexity to design economical building systems that use less energy. Henry credits much of what he knows about energy to his experience racing, repairing and designing bicycles and building his own bicycle frames. The “ten-person bicycle” that he built can be seen occasionally around New York City and in advertisements. Henry’s plain-spoken talk, humor, knowledge and penetrating analysis of subjects has established him as an extraordinary public speaker.

Henry is the author of Buildings Don’t’ Lie. Better Buildings by Understanding Basic Building Science, a book that captures his wide-ranging experience as a person who travels between white and blue collar to explain how buildings work (or don’t). He worked for many years as a highly sought after boiler mechanic, and while doing so invented the Gifford Loop, an improved method of piping a steam boiler, the use of radiator inlet orifices to avoid the need to install or maintain steam traps on two-pipe steam systems, and an improved method of calculating friction, flow and pump size in piping networks. Henry is the first and apparently only person to measure how much energy it takes to go for a ride on an elevator, and got an article about it published. He is the Owner and frequent user of over fifty measuring instruments.

Henry’s knowledge and integrity have made him the recipient of speaking bans from two government agencies: NYSERDA and The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Henry also discovered and publicized the data that showed how much extra energy LEED buildings use compared to normal buildings (on average), and got an article about it, including a proposal for a more honest system, published in NESEA’s magazine “Northeast Sun”.

Henry has led a lifetime of financial self-support by producing or selling goods or services which people pay for voluntarily with their own money, never having taken a penny of your tax money.