You can turn electricity into heat at an efficiency of 100%! Every kilowatt-hour of electricity in turns into one kilowatt-hour of heat out. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? The truth, however, is that electric resistance heat (toasters, baseboard heaters,…
1. If you want to save energy, the first thing you should do is weatherstrip your doors and caulk your windows. Not true. Your house has much bigger holes than those. 2. I live in the South (or another warm…
As a HERS (Home Energy Rating System) Provider, I check the home energy ratings that my raters do. Recently one of the EVER raters, Jason Payne of Structured Energies, completed a rating project for a homeowner who was financing home…
I'm one of those rare people who actually likes to go into crawl spaces. I strap on my knee pads, put on my head lamp, grab my camera, and go have fun. Well, perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit, but I…
Last month I gave a presentation at the RESNET Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina on the topic of the Energy Eficient Mortage (EEM) - where it stands now, what the barriers to its use are, where it might be going,…
I've analyzed and improved the energy efficiency of numerous homes. The starting point is, of course, the analysis because you want to put your efforts—and your dollars—where they're going to generate the best results. I've analyzed and improved the energy…
Energy Vanguard Energy Ratings (EVER), a division of Energy Vanguard, is a home energy rating provider. Last Tuesday, EVER rater Howard Feldman of Hilton Head was in a small group of builders, contractors, and energy auditors that got to meet…
Well, at least don't insulate your attic until you’ve sealed the air leaks. Most attics have a lot of holes where attic air can get into the house, or conditioned air can be lost to the attic. Don’t you just…
Remember when President Obama said that “insulation is sexy” a while back? Well, I’m happy to report that he and Congress are pushing to make things happen in the world of energy conservation. In case you haven’t heard, chances are…
In 2005, my friend Scott from Pennsylvania (well, really from Toronto but living in PA) visited me in Georgia. I was enveloped in the world of peak oil at that time and showed him an article that postulated that when…