It's Thanksgiving week here in the US again. That means a lot of people will be spending a lot of time indoors with ovens and cooktops firing. I'm one of those people. We're having a big get-together at my house,…
Yeah, I'm talking about a heating and cooling load calculation. Or in HVAC-speak, an ACCA Manual J. It's a way of calculating how much heating and cooling a house needs. The calculations use the details about the house to determine…
It's been a big year here at Energy Vanguard. In previous year-end articles, I've focused mainly on what happened here in the blog. This year, however, I'm expanding the retrospective to include other stuff. I'll start with the blog, then…
Air source heat pumps are a great way to keep a home comfortable. On the cooling side, they're exactly the same as an air conditioner. In heating mode, though, they have a limitation that other types of heating equipment don't…
The electrification movement is accelerating, so let's go back to this topic again and look at how to electrify an older house. In part 1 of this series, I listed some important questions to ask. Today, I'll cover some steps…
With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) rebates and other energy efficiency incentives out there now, it's a great time to start using a heat pump to heat your home. If you're currently heating with a furnace and have an air…
A little over a year ago, I wrote about the Emporia Vue home electricity monitoring system I installed at my house. I've posted data on LinkedIn and in some other articles since then. Now, though, I've got a whole year's…
![Nine Individual One-to-one Mini-split Heat Pump Outdoor Units [Photo Courtesy Of Jonah Richard]](https://www.energyvanguard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/mini-split-heat-pump-outdoor-unit-one-to-one-1000.jpg)
When it comes to mini-split heat pumps, you get to play by different rules. With a traditional split system heat pump (or air conditioner), there's one outdoor unit and one indoor unit. But with mini-splits, you have the option of…
Let's say you have an older house. Maybe the laundry room used to be in the basement but got moved to the main floor later. Then someone added a bunch of can lights in the kitchen and family room. Over…
The question of heat pumps in old houses is coming up a lot lately. With the great electrification upon us, heat pumps are quickly becoming the number one choice for space heating. In fact, data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and…