Buildings Aren’t Permanent
The old shack above has been around a long time. It still looks good in its old age, but you'd probably have to pour a lot of money into that building to make it useful again.This home looks nice. It…
The Energy Vanguard Blog
Busting a Myth About Low-Static Ducted Mini-Splits
I like mini-split heat pumps, especially of the ducted variety. And because I don't like to pay for a lot of excess power, I prefer to use ducted mini-splits with smaller blower motors operating at a low total external static…
Seizing an Air-Sealing and Insulating Opportunity
The number one thing you need to do to protect a building is control water. As the Canadian building scientist Gus Handegord said, "The three biggest problems in buildings are water, water, and water." So, with the 1961 house I…
Spray Foam Insulation at the Edge – A Forensic Analysis
An attic that's brought inside the building enclosure is a beautiful thing. This is most often done with spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation, either open-cell or closed-cell. Here in the southeastern US, open-cell is most often the spray foam of…
The #1 Reason to Have an All-Electric Home
Maybe you've heard the rumblings coming out of the environmental and building science crowd. Maybe not. But it's getting louder lately. The rumbling I'm alluding to is the move to switch from natural gas to electricity as the energy carrier…
The Third Worst Place to Put a Duct
Ah, so many choices. If you want to design and install a duct system to create problems, the possibilities are endless. I've certainly written about a lot of them (as well as how to do it properly). Today, though, let's…
Finding the Source of a Basement Water Problem
That photo above is from my basement. In case you missed my last article, I just bought a 1961 ranch-style house in Atlanta and am embarking on the wonderful building science adventure of turning it into a high-performance home. Ultimately,…
My New Project: A 1961 House With Home-Performance Angst
Let me tell you the story about a poor, young country boy who broke the law and launched me into my new project. Back in February, I was driving home from work one evening when a driver T-boned me. The…
Fiberglass Is Still the Number One Insulation for Home Builders
The Home Innovation Research Labs (HIRL) does an annual survey of home builders to find out what they're doing. The results of their 2019 survey of the homes built in 2018 are out now, and they recently published an interesting…
The Best Velocity for Moving Air Through Ducts
The first thing to know about the velocity of air moving through ducts is that the slower you get the air moving, the better it is for air flow. That was the main point of my last article. In fact,…