Ever have the smell of your fireplace inside your home? It's not uncommon. Here's a question I got from a reader named Rob last month:We always have a smoke smell from our fireplace, more on some days than others. I…
It's been another good year in the Energy Vanguard. I've published 28 articles here in the blog this year (counting this one), which brings me to 902 since I began this little project back in 2010. Hard to believe it's…
The old shack above has been around a long time. It still looks good in its old age, but you'd probably have to pour a lot of money into that building to make it useful again.This home looks nice. It…
I like mini-split heat pumps, especially of the ducted variety. And because I don't like to pay for a lot of excess power, I prefer to use ducted mini-splits with smaller blower motors operating at a low total external static…
The number one thing you need to do to protect a building is control water. As the Canadian building scientist Gus Handegord said, "The three biggest problems in buildings are water, water, and water." So, with the 1961 house I…
An attic that's brought inside the building enclosure is a beautiful thing. This is most often done with spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation, either open-cell or closed-cell. Here in the southeastern US, open-cell is most often the spray foam of…
Maybe you've heard the rumblings coming out of the environmental and building science crowd. Maybe not. But it's getting louder lately. The rumbling I'm alluding to is the move to switch from natural gas to electricity as the energy carrier…
Ah, so many choices. If you want to design and install a duct system to create problems, the possibilities are endless. I've certainly written about a lot of them (as well as how to do it properly). Today, though, let's…
That photo above is from my basement. In case you missed my last article, I just bought a 1961 ranch-style house in Atlanta and am embarking on the wonderful building science adventure of turning it into a high-performance home. Ultimately,…
Let me tell you the story about a poor, young country boy who broke the law and launched me into my new project. Back in February, I was driving home from work one evening when a driver T-boned me. The…