The Latest from the Energy Vanguard Blog
Last year I wrote five articles in a series on duct design and ever since, I keep getting requests to continue it. Well, those of you looking for more in this area, you're getting your wish. I've listed and linked the others in the series below so you can go back and read them first if you'd like...
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Nope. Today is not the first of April. Nor is this one of those special April Fools' Day articles I write at random times. This one's real. A white noise generator has now been used in at least one home to reduce indoor humidity. And no, this isn't an amazing scientific breakthrough either....
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Here we are in the middle of air conditioning season. So why don't we chop down some myths and misconceptions about ceiling fans. What got me on to this topic was a video of a fan with blades that hide on top of the fan when the fan is turned off. Sounds clever, but it's a ridiculous idea....
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I've been on a bit of a mission for the past several years. My goal is to get more people thinking about humidity in terms of dew point rather than relative humidity. Why? Because relative humidity is misleading. That whole "relative" thing is a bit slippery, you know.
For example, I've had a...
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I found out last month that the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) is working on a new design manual. You probably know of some of their other manuals: Manual J, Manual S, Manual D...maybe even Manual T. They have quite a few others as well (P, H, Zr...) but now they're working on...
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Sometimes people are bothered by how things look. They don't want a return grille showing in that location or they'd rather have the supply registers low on the wall or they just can't stomach the thought of a wall-mounted ductless mini-split anywhere. We all have our preferences about how things...
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It's been a while since I've written about what I had been calling "The Great Ventilation Debate" back when Joe Lstiburek was battling the ASHRAE 62.2 residential ventilation committee. The 62.2 committee meets in person twice a year at the two ASHRAE conferences and they just met last Friday and...
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I've been going to the meetings of the ASHRAE residential ventilation committee (SSPC 62.2, to be specific) for the past few years. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this article from my room in Houston, the site of the summer meeting. It's always interesting to go to these things because the...
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It's getting hot out there. Here in the Southeast, we love our air conditioning. In fact, without air conditioning, far fewer people would live in places like Houston, Hattiesburg, and Sopchoppy. And that's true for the hot, dry places, too, like Phoenix, El Paso, and Boron.
So if we're going to...
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When you enter the world of building science — whether through building a house, becoming a home energy rater/building analyst, or just hanging out in cyberplaces like this — everyone talks about the importance of getting actual heating and cooling load calculations based on ACCA Manual J. A great...
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