Bats Can’t Live Under a Thermal Bridge
I was in Austin a couple of months ago, and I got a chance to watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Avenue bridge. (See my video at the end of the article!) I also saw a great…
The Energy Vanguard Blog
A December Building Science Bonanza
Let me drop a few names on you: John Straube, Peter Yost, Scott Pigg, Keith Williams. Impressed? If you know who those folks are, you probably realize how much you could learn from them. If you don't recognize the names,…
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…
Is Energy Efficiency More Important Than Indoor Air Quality?
I was searching the Interwebs for data on what percentage of buildings are designed by architects this week when I came across the Home Design Trends Survey from the American Institute of Architects (AIA). (If you can point me toward…
Why Did Painters Refuse to Paint Insulated Houses in the 1930s?
Now, I know exactly what you're thinking. Those painters didn't want to paint insulated buildings because building science hadn't been invented yet, and they thought the insulators were jumping the gun. Or was it that painters thought that stuffing the…
Beware of Roofers in Homes with Spray Foam Insulation
You have two choices when change happens: You can embrace it, or you can fight it. Some parts of the home building and home improvement industries are in the first camp. These are the home performance contractors, green builders, and…
Does Your Spray Foam Insulation Need a Thermal or Ignition Barrier?
To say spray foam insulation has become popular in green building over the past decade is like saying Peyton Manning is a good quarterback. It's an understatement. Although it's certainly not used in every green building project, it's become one…
A First Sentence to Rival Gabriel García Márquez’s Firing Squad
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." Thus opens Gabriel García Márquez's classic work of literature, One Hundred Years of Solitude.…
The 2013 ACEEE State Energy Efficiency Scorecard: No A’s & 43 F’s
If the annual scorecard for state energy efficiency just published by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy were a list of test scores, here's how the grade distribution would look for the 50 states plus the District of…
Fixing an Old House? Follow Einstein’s Advice
I get a lot of questions from people asking how they should go about fixing their homes. Sometimes it's specific (What's the best way to insulate my kneewalls?), and sometimes it's a hands up in the air, With all these…