Why Doesn’t Heat Flow Backwards?
Ah, the meaning of the Second Law of Thermodynamics! I might as well ask, What is the meaning of life? It's a fascinating question and one that we can approach from a lot of different angles. Since this is a…
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US Green Building Council to Require All-Glass LEED Homes
New houses certified in the LEED for Homes program will be required to have 100% windows in all above-grade walls once the new 2012 update is approved by US Green Building Council (USGBC) members this summer. The LEED certification program…
Thermal Comfort: Everyone Wants It but Few Know the ASHRAE Standard
GUEST POST: As the Affordable Comfort conference kicks off today, it's appropriate to take a look at what comfort is and how we construct buildings to have the best shot at getting it. Robert Bean is an engineer in Calgary…
How Much Air Leakage in Your Home Is Too Much?
Whether you want to build a new home or fix an old one, the way to ensure that you get the best performance is to do the building envelope right. That means installing the right amount of insulation and installing…
How to Sheathe an Attic Kneewall — And How Not to
Yesterday I was doing a home energy rating for quality assurance in Augusta, Georgia, and the house I was in had a bonus room. Bonus rooms are often the least comfortable room in a house, and the main reason is…
GUEST POST: Spray Foam, Infrared Cameras, & the New Big Holes
After reading an article by Joe Lstiburek titled Just Right and Airtight, I got to thinking about what we've been spending a lot of time on lately, and that is what we call the “New Big Holes.” Of the 350+…
Rare Grade I Fiberglass Batt Insulation Sighting
One of the great benefits of going out into the field to do quality assurance and training for HERS raters is that I get to see what's going on in new construction. Last week I visited HERS raters in Nashville,…
A Net Zero Energy Home in Rural Tennessee
On my thousand-mile quality assurance road trip last week, I visited a house that was designed to produce more energy than it uses, making it a net zero energy home. You can take any house all the way to net…
GUEST POST: Lessons Learned by a Reluctant Owner-Builder
Reading Allison's recent article about his experience building a green home brought back memories of my own similar experience back in 1999. Like Allison's home, mine was designed to be high performance, although maybe not so green. (Get more details…
What Would a “Pretty Good House” Look Like? Part 1.
What is it about Maine? Some of my favorite people in the home energy pro community live there. We just signed up our first HERS Rater from the state (Diane Milliken of Horizon Residential Energy Services). Now, some folks there…