This time of year, I see a lot of ads for various types of electric space heaters. They all promise that you'll save money by using them rather than whatever other type of heat you have in your home. Some…
Independent home energy auditors have always been a rare breed. In the past decade, though, an army of them has gone through RESNET or BPI training programs and hit the streets in search of homes to analyze. At first, these…
We all have beliefs about energy, the economy, and growth. Mostly, we hold the beliefs of the people who influenced us growing up—our family, friends, and teachers—and the media voices we pay attention to. A lot of people don't see…
It's 2012, and I'm excited about the potential of the new year. I went to Possum Drop to ring in this new year, and we burned another possum effigy, this one loaded with more fireworks than ever and dressed to…
This is the time of year when a lot of otherwise sane people get out their crystal balls and tell us what's going to happen in the coming year. Well, I don't have a crystal ball, so instead I got…
Keeping with my end of the year theme of different lists of the articles I've written over the past year, I now give you my Drives Me Crazy list for 2011, painstakingly narrowed down to my top 5. I may…
Most of my writing here in the Energy Vanguard blog is deadly serious. I write the articles with my brow deeply furrowed, fretting over all the energy that's wasted and comfort opportunities missed because of the problems with the way…
Wow! 2011 was a great year in the Energy Vanguard Blog, and part of it was due to our writing articles that generated controversy. Here's a list of the posts that stirred people up the most. Sometimes it showed in…
Long before any dirt is moved, developers make a choice that affects the cash flow of the eventual residents of the new community they're planning. They've got a piece of land, the survey is done, and then they sit down…
Although I rarely get to listen to it these days, I love the show Science Friday with Ira Flatow on NPR. It's always interesting, and you get to learn cool new science stuff. This past Friday, they covered a topic…