Energy Vanguard has been a Home Energy Rater Training Provider for one year now. We received our accreditation from RESNET in July 2010, and we just finished up our fourth class. As always right after a class, I'm both exhausted…
Sometimes HVAC companies take the easy way out when they install ducts. They may even have done this in your home. I've seen it in many, many homes, and I know as soon as I see it that the duct…
A couple of months ago, I wrote about why you don't want power attic ventilators in your home. Whenever I've written about this topic, it just seems to set some people off. I get comments like, "You really should do…
Yesterday we took our HERS rater class out into the field to get experience with the pressure testing equipment and data collection procedures. As a bonus, the house we visited presented us with an interesting mystery. Here are the symptoms…
I'm teaching a HERS rater class this week, and on Monday we went out to look at a couple of houses and do a Blower Door test. The second house we visited was under construction, and the builder had used…
As you sit comfortably in your home, you’re being bombarded by radiation from all sides. There’s nothing you can do to stop it either. Don’t worry, though—without it, you’d be dead because your house would be at a temperature of…
I spent this week at the 15th Annual Westford Symposium on Building Science (aka Building Science Summer Camp). Great event. Great people. Lots of learning and thinking and networking. I spent this week at the 15th Annual Westford Symposium on…
Well, my first day of the 2011 Building Science Summer Camp, officially called the Fifteenth Annual Westford Symposium on Building Science, has come to an end. It's been a great day up here in Westford, Massachusetts, (right next to Chelmsford,…
Guest Post. Today's article is a guest post by Paul Raymer, one of the top guys I know on the topic of getting fresh air into homes. Guest Post. Today's article is a guest post by Paul Raymer, one of…
Here's an easy thing you can do to keep your air conditioner running as efficiently as possible: Don't crowd the condensing unit, the outdoor part of your AC. In the photo at left, you see a common problem. I took…