Breaking Down a House
Who among us doesn't like to take a good swing with a sledge hammer at the wall of an old house. I sure do, as you can tell from the lead photo. But demolition isn't the topic at hand today. …
big picture
Can Clean Energy Eliminate All Rejected Energy?
To understand energy on a large scale in the US, you can't do better than studying the energy flow charts from the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (part of the US Department of Energy). In the 2023 version above, you see…
A BTU Is A BTU…Or Is It?
Since we're on the topic of energy, let's extend last week's discussion of electric resistance heat efficiency. I've sometimes told people that "a BTU is a BTU." (For the rest of the world, the conversion is simple: "A joule is…
Are We Decarbonizing Yet?
The latest US energy consumption chart from the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) is out. That's it above. (Click here to download a high resolution version.) As always, it's full of interesting data. You can learn a lot about how…
The Meaning of Rejected Energy
I love the US energy flow charts published by the Lawrence Livermore National Lab each year. The chart for 2021 came out in April, and you can see it in its full glory above. (Right click to download the full…
The Big Picture of Indoor Air Quality – Excerpt
The quote below is a classic from the 1893 book, Ventilation and Heating, by John Shaw Billings. The imagery of wearing someone else's dirty underwear may shock you, but Billings makes a compelling point. We essentially do something worse whenever…
Book Ventilation Chapter first two pages
The first two pages of the ventilation chapter in the galley copy of A House Needs to Breathe...Or Does It? by Allison A. Bailes III, PhD. This is not the final version of these pages. The book will be available…
Get Ready for the 2022 National Home Performance Conference!
One of my absolute favorite conferences is coming up soon. The Building Performance Association* is holding its annual National Home Performance Conference next month in Nashville, Tennessee. When I was new in the world of building science and home performance,…
The Top Articles in the Energy Vanguard Blog in 2021
It's the last day of the year, so let's wrap it up with some lists. Whether you missed some of the articles I wrote this year or are just curious about what other people were reading here, I've got three…
The 2021 Energy Vanguard Wrap-up
Here we are at the end of another year. It's been a weird one! I certainly won't go into all the weirdness of 2021, but let me give you the Energy Vanguard wrap-up, divided into five categories. Four of them…