Energy Vanguard’s 2024 Retrospective

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 discuss what else is happening at Energy Vanguard.  And of course, I can’t write about 2024 without talking about the basement renovation I’ve been doing at my house.  Finally, I’ll close with a request.

The Energy Vanguard Blog in 2024

I published 36 articles this year.  As usual, they cover a lot of ground:  remodeling, indoor air quality, hot water, insulation, airtightness, HVAC design, heat pumps, electrification, and more.  You can go to the main blog page and scroll through all of them, but I’ll list below the ones I think were the most notable.

Fireplace Building Science – Pros and Cons

Is Heat Pump Supply Air Too Cold for Heating?

Radon Reduction From Basement Sealing – Preliminary

Will Your Water Heater Give You Legionnaires’ Disease?

A Weekend Zehnder ERV Installation Blitz

Making a Roof Less Likely to Leak

A Burnt Grilled Cheese and the Collapse of Indoor Air Quality

Do You Really Need to Run the Bath Fan in Summer?

InSoFast Makes Basement Insulation Easy

An Improved System for Even Faster Hot Water

How Airtight Can You Make an Older House?

The Lost Art of Quality Control

Did you catch them all when I published them?

Our weekly newsletter and YouTube channel

We’ve been doing a newsletter since 2011, but in the past few years have made it more regular.  It’s now weekly…mostly.  In it I post the latest articles and videos published here and on our YouTube channel.  I also write a column that you’ll find only in the newsletter.  There are a few other tidbits as well, and you’ll see them when you subscribe.  Scroll to the top of this page and enter your name and email address to do so.

We’ve also had a YouTube channel since way back then, 2010 in this case.  I posted a video every once in a while but focused on writing instead of video.  This summer, I decided to dive into video and have been doing a lot more with it for the past five months.  Please check out our YouTube channel and subscribe.  And let us know what you’d like to see us make videos about.

A House Needs to Breathe…Or Does It?

I published my book, A House Needs to Breathe…Or Does It? in October 2022.  As of this writing, we’ve sold a little over 6,300 copies.  Wow!  Thanks to all of you who bought a copy…or multiple copies!  I’ve just updated the book with some minor corrections and ordered a new batch from the printer.

Also, many of you have been asking for this for a while and we’re finally on the verge of having the ebook version available.  We’ve uploaded the file and are trying to get past the AI guardians at the moment.  Amazon apparently thinks my ebook may confuse potential readers because:

• Similarity of the contributor name to another author
• Similarity of the title to a previously published book
• Similarity of the cover to a previously published book
• Similarity of the description to a previously published known work

So far I’ve been unable to convince them that the other author is me and the other book is the paper version of this same book.  I’m happy they’re trying to prevent someone from ripping me off, but their AI gatekeeper is a bit dense.  I’ll let you know when it’s available.

My basement renovation

One of my biggest focuses this year has been my basement renovation.  We started work with asbestos abatement and demolition on 9 February and are maybe a month away from being finished with phase 1, which is the biggest part.

A bunch of the articles I’ve written and videos I’ve made this year are related to this work.  Here’s list for you:

Basement Renovation in a 1961 Home

Radon Reduction From Basement Sealing – Preliminary

The One Reason NOT to Do It Yourself

A Weekend Zehnder ERV Installation Blitz

Concrete, Steel, and Demolition in My Basement

InSoFast Makes Basement Insulation Easy

Easy Window Flashing at the Corners

A Plumbing Feature Every Home Should Have

An Improved System for Even Faster Hot Water

Soundproofing a Wall – The Basics

How Airtight Can You Make an Older House?

The Lost Art of Quality Control

Yeah, there’s some overlap with the list of notable articles.

Related to the basement remodel is the installation of our Zehnder energy recovery ventilator (ERV).  And I have great news there:  I just started it up two days ago!  You’ll see more about that in future articles and videos.

Energy Vanguard

We grew again this year and now are up to six full time employees (photo below).  In 2024 we hired Madi Peracha, a mechanical engineering graduate of the University of Delaware.

Of course, the growth in staffing is due to an increase in work coming our way.  Most of our revenue is from residential HVAC design, and we’re going to finish this year with just shy of 200 new jobs in 39 different states plus Canada, Mexico, and the District of Columbia.  Yes, we work all over the US and even a bit beyond.

Another bit of news here is that I am no longer the sole owner of Energy Vanguard.  Jeffrey Sauls, my right hand man since January of 2012, is now my partner.  He is responsible for A LOT of our success here.

What are you seeing?

I’m working on an article about news and trends in the world of building science.  I’ve got a list of several things I’ll cover, but maybe I’ve missed something.  What are you seeing there?  Leave a comment below or send me an email at evinfo@energyvanguard.com.

All of us at Energy Vanguard wish you a safe and happy new year!

 

Allison A. Bailes III, PhD is a speaker, writer, building science consultant, and the founder of Energy Vanguard in Decatur, Georgia.  He has a doctorate in physics and is the author of a bestselling book on building science.  He also writes the Energy Vanguard Blog.  For more updates, you can follow Allison on LinkedIn and subscribe to Energy Vanguard’s weekly newsletter and YouTube channel.

 

Related Articles

The Top 10 Articles in the Energy Vanguard Blog in 2022

The Top Articles in the Energy Vanguard Blog in 2021

Top 10 Articles in the Energy Vanguard Blog in 2019

 

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