A skilled building and systems analyst, Dale has completed more than 10,000 DOE-2 building energy simulations across 7 of the 8 U.S. climate zones. He has extensive experience calibrating simulations to empirical data and creating new functions within the program to simulate building components the program was not originally set up to handle. The results have influenced the types of school buildings state agencies in the United States set as guidelines for future buildings. Before joining ESBL, Northcutt helped start a solar collector manufacturing business and worked in the research, development, and manufacturing of solar collectors for several years.

Dale has considerable expertise in field and lab testing and monitoring, including building energy monitoring, lighting level and daylighting studies, studies of water absorption of building materials, spectroscopy, chromatography, evaluation of solar collector performance, evaluation of heat exchanger performance, testing by coheating, blower door, and infrared imaging, and computer simulation of buildings using DOE 2. He has also developed a skylight system sizing and specification tool for architects to optimize the daylighting in a room. Dale has been with the lab since 1996.