A magician doesn't reveal his secrets, right? So why do those of us who blog and tweet successfully keep telling everyone else not only that they need to jump on the bandwagon but also how to do it. I've written…
I went to school with Cajuns in south Louisiana, and fights were a big deal. They happened frequently, and when they did, a small crowd would gather. The noise would grow quickly and soon everyone in the schoolyard would run…
First of all, let's call it what it really is. The industry likes the term "vent-free" when talking about gas fireplaces that keep all the exhaust gases in your home. I prefer the term "ventless" or, even better, "unvented." Not…
Does your heating system have a humidifier attached to it? If so, it's most likely there to treat a symptom while leaving the underlying cause of that symptom alone. The symptom is dry air in winter. Unless you're in an…
When I'm explaining home energy ratings and the HERS Index to people, I often get asked, "How accurate is a HERS rating? Will my energy bills really be close to what it says?" In the mind of the questioner, that's…
Heating and air conditioning contractors, like the rest of us, make mistakes. They make mistakes that hurt performance and efficiency of the HVAC systems they install and maintain. They make mistakes that hurt their customers sometimes. And they make mistakes…
2013! Can you believe it? We survived the end of the Mayan calendar and are now living in what I like to call the post-non-apocalyptic world. I think that may well be the next hot genre for literature and film.…
Assuming this is my last article of 2012, I'll have published 135 articles by the end of this year. I generally do about 3 per week and cover a lot of ground. The subject matter ranges from in-depth explanations of…
I went to see The Hobbit recently. Of course, the center of the story is a dragon, Smaug, that invaded the ancestral home of the dwarves many moons ago and set them on a long diaspora. The story begins as…
Let's say your trusty old furnace is at the end of its life. You've got to buy a new one, so you call your HVAC company and they rush over to make sure you don't freeze during the next cold…