Surprise! Your heat pump water heater has a filter that needs to be cleaned. But you probably already knew that if you're reading the Energy Vanguard Blog. It's a thin little filter whose primary job is to keep larger particles…
Do you know how to read a roof after a snowstorm? When you do, it tells you how good the building enclosure is. We had that opportunity here last weekend. We got 2 or 3 inches of snow in Atlanta…
Several years ago, I heard something really interesting at a talk by a self-described futurist. It's an interesting "Futurists," she said, "look at weak signals and try to figure out which ones will become strong signals." I hadn't thought…
It's been a big year here at Energy Vanguard. In previous year-end articles, I've focused mainly on what happened here in the blog. This year, however, I'm expanding the retrospective to include other stuff. I'll start with the blog, then…
So you've got a bunch of people showing up this week to spend a day or two or three with you. In a perfect world, no one brings any illnesses with them to the party. But what if they do…
![A Quality Control Failure Led To A Strange Border At Bill Spohn's Home [Photo Courtesy Of Bill Spohn]](https://www.energyvanguard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/spohn-home-sidewalk-grade-mistake.jpg)
I'm sure you've heard the saying, measure twice, cut once. It's easy to take it too literally and think it applies only to things you cut. In reality, it is THE maxim of quality control. It means think, check, and…
One of the best things you can do to improve your home is to make it more airtight. Yeah, it's good for energy efficiency, but that shouldn't be your main motivation. It's good for indoor air quality. A good air…
You know how the sound from that TV in your den comes right through the wall and you can hear every word? Or the annoyance of your neighbors when their lawn maintenance crew comes every Saturday afternoon right when you…
I missed an opportunity. You may recall the retrofit I did in 2022 to get faster hot water at three of my fixtures. It made a huge improvement, but it could have been even better. But before I go there,…
As we know from the most recent natural disaster to hit the US (Hurricane Helene), it's good to do some emergency planning before an emergency strikes. But let's take a more common example: plumbing leaks in your home. If it…