Do Airtight Houses Need Makeup Air?
When you turn on an exhaust fan, it blows air from inside the house to the outdoors. That air leaving the house will be matched by an equal amount of air coming in from outside. The more airtight the house…
The Energy Vanguard Blog
![Nine Individual One-to-one Mini-split Heat Pump Outdoor Units [Photo Courtesy Of Jonah Richard]](https://www.energyvanguard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/mini-split-heat-pump-outdoor-unit-one-to-one-1000.jpg)
6 Reasons to Do Single-Head Mini-Split Heat Pumps
When it comes to mini-split heat pumps, you get to play by different rules. With a traditional split system heat pump (or air conditioner), there's one outdoor unit and one indoor unit. But with mini-splits, you have the option of…
An Electrification Essential: Electrical Circuit Mapping
Let's say you have an older house. Maybe the laundry room used to be in the basement but got moved to the main floor later. Then someone added a bunch of can lights in the kitchen and family room. Over…
How to Kill the Performance of Your Insulation
If you want to kill the thermal performance of your insulation, you can take your pick of several excellent ways to do so. Of course, you could just not install insulation. (It happens, even in new construction.) You also could…
How to Avoid the Flaw in Structural Insulated Panel Construction
Before 2001, the biggest construction project I had ever taken on was a bookcase. My most complicated project was probably the mahogany lamp table I built in tenth grade shop class. (I still have it!) Then I decided to build…
Can Cold Surfaces Wring Moisture From Dry Air?
Cold air is dry air, right? Think about the humidity in your house in winter compared to what it is in summer. If you're in a humid climate, it's going to be drier in winter. Even in dry climates, it's…
Will a Heat Pump Work in an Old House?
The question of heat pumps in old houses is coming up a lot lately. With the great electrification upon us, heat pumps are quickly becoming the number one choice for space heating. In fact, data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and…
What a Carbon Dioxide Monitor Tells You
OK, it's time to spell this out in black and white because there seems to be some confusion. Monitoring carbon dioxide (CO2), as I've been doing with my Aranet4 portable CO2 monitor* for the past couple of years, is a…
![Preparing An Old House For Electrification [Photo By Scottbb, Flickr.com, CC License]](https://www.energyvanguard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/electrical-panel-neat-wiring-electrification-old-house-cropped.jpg)
Preparing an Old House for Electrification, Part 1
With the Inflation Reduction Act providing lots of incentives to improve your home and go all-electric, let's look at how you can prepare for the conversion. As with any home improvement job, it's best to do your homework. In this…
What Happens to Your Used Electricity?
When you turn on your toaster, you know what happens to the electricity going through those filaments. You can feel it. The energy you extract from the electricity turns directly into heat. But what about the other electrical devices and…