Solving a Crawl Space Water Mystery
When I started Energy Vanguard in 2008, I didn't know how it would evolve and had thought early on that I may get back into home performance contracting. I did a couple of jobs, the last one being a crawl…
indoor air quality
A Pi Day Physics Lesson on the Induction Cooktop — With Dancing!
Today is Pi Day, named for that special number, 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288... The three dots at the end mean that I've exhausted my memory of the digits of pi, but pi doesn't care. It just goes on and on. Anyway, Pi Day…
The Ventilation Debate Continues: Interview with Dr. Iain Walker
The debate over how much to ventilate a home has been going on a long time. Last year, Building Science Corporation introduced their own standard to compete against ASHRAE 62.2 because of problems they felt weren't adequately addressed in the…
4 Ways a Bad Duct System Can Lead to Poor Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a big deal. It doesn't get near as much attention as energy efficiency or green building programs, but it should be one of the highest priorities for anyone who lives in a home. It's actually…
Are We Off Track With Combustion Safety Testing?
Burning fuels inside a house can lead to serious health and safety problems. Energy auditors do a variety of combustion safety tests to find potential hazards and recommend fixes. A couple of weeks ago at the Dry Climate Forum, I…
Can Occupants Be Trusted to Control Their Home’s Ventilation System?
One of the points of contention in the great ventilation debate is whether a home's occupants should control their own ventilation systems. The issue came up again in my article last week, Does a Gas Furnace Dry Out the Air…
Building Science Schmilding Science; Let’s Do Things Right in 2014
We're a few days into 2014 now. A lot of homes got built last year, and a lot got renovated, too. Quite a few homes got home energy ratings, and even more had blower door tests. Spray foam attics and…
The Mixed-Up IAQ and Infiltration Blues
I've been on the road this week. I flew to Chicago on Tuesday and gave two presentations at the Better Buildings: Better Business conference put on by the Energy Center of Wisconsin. After I was done there on Wednesday, I…
Will Higher Ventilation Rates Reduce Student Absences in School?
A new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) makes a bold claim that increasing ventilation rates can cut the number of student absences related to illness. The lead author on the paper, Mark Mendell, is quoted by LBNL's News…
A Net Zero Energy Home in a Beautiful Green Community
I spoke at Serenbe,† a beautiful green community southwest of Atlanta, this weekend and got a chance to visit a net zero energy home while there. Built by Luis Imery, one of the home energy raters we're a HERS provider…