On 1 July 2012, the ENERGY STAR new homes program moves fully (well, almost) into Version 3. Currently, the ENERGY STAR team at the US EPA is up to Revision 5 of Version 3, and some items have been delayed,…
A lot of home builders and homeowners are getting certified home energy ratings to find out how efficient their homes are. There's also a lot of buzz about HERS ratings, with builders looking at them as a tool for marketing…
Take a look at this first photo. If you've got any building science training at all, I really don't need to say anymore. Sure, I could fill you in on some of the details, but I'm betting you already know…
In our last home energy rater (HERS) training class, we saw something very interesting on one of our field visits. We were doing a Blower Door test on a new house, and one of the bedrooms upstairs had plastic taped…
ENERGY STAR. LEED for Homes. Builders Challenge. HERS. It's easy to fall into the wrong line of thinking about this. I did it myself when I was new to the HERS rating industry. It's even easier now that RESNET is…
It's been a while since my last post on the big picture of energy, so today I present to you two more metrics that show we have a serious problem. Peak oil, as I've written here before, brings about a…
"If architects did their job there wouldn’t be any need for building science." So says Joe Lstiburek, principal at Building Science Corporation, in an interview with Andrew Michler of Inhabitat. Actually, there still would be building science. It's just that…
OK, HERS raters, here's a question for you: Have you done ratings on homes that have duct systems in encapsulated crawl spaces? If the duct system didn't qualify for the RESNET exemption from testing (ducts 100% inside the building envelope…
Here's the thing. If you have anything to do with houses (home builder, remodeler, HERS rater, trade contractor, homeowner...), you probably ought to understand these three fundamental principles of air movement. Then you'll have a better chance of knowing how…
Flex duct. It's ubiquitous now in homes with forced air heating and cooling systems. It's easy to install. It's cheap. The installer can show up and rough in a whole duct system without ever having seen the house before and…