Nope. Today is not the first of April. Nor is this one of those special April Fools' Day articles I write at random times. This one's real. A white noise generator has now been used in at least one home…
I've been on a bit of a mission for the past several years. My goal is to get more people thinking about humidity in terms of dew point rather than relative humidity. Why? Because relative humidity is misleading. That whole…
I found out last month that the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) is working on a new design manual. You probably know of some of their other manuals: Manual J, Manual S, Manual D...maybe even Manual T. They have…
Here we are in the middle of air conditioning season. So why don't we chop down some myths and misconceptions about ceiling fans. What got me on to this topic was a video of a fan with blades that hide…
Sometimes people are bothered by how things look. They don't want a return grille showing in that location or they'd rather have the supply registers low on the wall or they just can't stomach the thought of a wall-mounted ductless…
It's been a while since I've written about what I had been calling "The Great Ventilation Debate" back when Joe Lstiburek was battling the ASHRAE 62.2 residential ventilation committee. The 62.2 committee meets in person twice a year at the…
I've been going to the meetings of the ASHRAE residential ventilation committee (SSPC 62.2, to be specific) for the past few years. As a matter of fact, I'm writing this article from my room in Houston, the site of the…
It's getting hot out there. Here in the Southeast, we love our air conditioning. In fact, without air conditioning, far fewer people would live in places like Houston, Hattiesburg, and Sopchoppy. And that's true for the hot, dry places, too,…
When you enter the world of building science — whether through building a house, becoming a home energy rater/building analyst, or just hanging out in cyberplaces like this — everyone talks about the importance of getting actual heating and cooling…
Many people seem to think HVAC design means you get a load calculation (Manual J in the ACCA protocols) so you know what size system to put in. Hey, that's a great start. It's way better than just using a…