Energy Vanguard Blog

Of course, there are more than 3 reasons that your 3 ton air conditioner isn't really 3 tons, starting with the fact that it's not 3 tons in weight. That unit refers to cooling capacity and harkens back to the days of ice. I'm also not talking about any of the multitude of reasons having to do with improper design, faulty installations, or lack of maintenance, topics that I discuss plenty in this space.

When you think of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), do you think of atomic clocks and hunks of metal that serve as standards of mass and length? Or do you think of cutting edge research in net zero energy (NZE) homes? It turns out, they do indeed still deal with standards, but they also do a lot of great research, including studying NZE homes.

Neville poked his head up through the scuttle hole into the attic and surveyed the situation. Troy immediately heard a scream erupt and had to get out of the way as Neville quickly jumped down off the ladder.

Let me ask you a question: Would you rather I gave you $100 one year from now or $100 right now? No brainer; it's easy to see that $100 right now is worth more than $100 in the future. Another way to say that is $100 in future value is worth less than $100 in present value. But what if I told you that I'd give you $100 one year from now or $90 today? Which would you take?

Do you want a good air barrier on your house? Of course, you do. No one who knows anything at all about building science believes that old myth that a house needs to breathe. We want airtight houses, but then we want mechanical ventilation to bring in fresh air from outside (well, at least as fresh as you can get from your outside).

If you were a really strange person, or even a normal person who maybe just has some really odd ideas, and you wanted to breathe the gaseous emissions from a dead, rotten decaying possum, while in your home, how would you do it? I know what I'd do. I'd go get a dead, rotten decaying possum and put it right in my living room. That'd do the trick. And if I needed to turn it up a notch, I'd throw some more dead, rotten decaying possums on the pile.

I flunked my first physics exam in college. Yep. I got a 57% on it. I felt horrible about it because I was a physics major. Despite my dismal start to college physics, however, I did go on to get a doctorate in the field. The secret was figuring out for myself what millions of Chinese people learn from an early age. Here's how it happened.

Acronyms and initials (let's call that AI,^† for short, not to be confused with the other AI, which stands for artificial intelligence, or AIA, which stands for American Institute of Architects) are part of the jargon of every field. Our field, whether you call it building science, green building, home performance, or something else, is no exception. So, a few years ago I started putting together a list that I now include in the manuals that we give out in our training classing (HERS rater and BPI Building Analyst).

Building a house is expensive enough already. Why would you want to spend a bunch of money fixing something that could have been done right the first time...or the second time? Well, no one intends to have to spend that money, but the result of not understanding the control of moisture in building enclosures is just that. And a lot of money every year is wasted fixing problems that could easily have been avoided if a good Building Enclosure Control Freak had been involved.

Let's face it. Some ideas are just plain stupid. The photo below shows one of them. The product description^† says, "Use to decoratively cover up A/C units..." Yes, they include heat pumps, too. What do you think will happen if you put that over the condensing unit of your air conditioner?