Every area of building science has its jargon. And I'm not just talking about the acronyms, initials, and abbreviations that get thrown around casually. I've been making a list of the most interesting, useful, or stupefying BS terms and giving…
At first glance, the word “flux” looks like it may not be appropriate in polite company. In fact, though, it’s a word used in physics all the time. Flux comes from the same Latin root that gives us “flow.” The…
Back in my home performance contracting days (2004 to 2007), I spent a lot of time in unconditioned attics and crawl spaces. First, I was there to find problems. Then, if the homeowners hired me, I'd go in and do…
It's time to revisit one of my favorite topics: the powered attic ventilator. Ten years ago I wrote an article titled Don’t Let Your Attic Suck - Powered Attic Ventilators Are a Bad Idea. It's got 169 comments and would…
My friends Elena Chrimat and Alex Williams* recently went on vacation in Mexico. They booked a condo and traveled down there from their home in the Phoenix, Arizona area. They may the first ones ever to stay there who looked…
In case you haven't heard, Amazon is having its Prime Day sale today and tomorrow. Occasionally, I write about tools and products we use in our work or homes and provide affiliate links* to the ones we like. I've also…
Poor installation of insulation matters. Even in cases where you might think the R-value won't be affected, it is. Eleven years ago this month, I wrote an article about one of the most important and misunderstood principles in building science. …
A lot of people have gotten the message that ducts for your HVAC system—and the system itself—should be in conditioned space. Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) studied the effect of ducts in an unconditioned attic and found…
Sizing a heating or cooling system should start with an assessment of the heating or cooling load. Nowadays, we know the physics behind heat transfer, so we can come up with fairly accurate predictions of how much heating and cooling…
Here in the South, we love our humidity. It makes us glisten in the summer. But we also love our air conditioning and low humidity inside our homes. To save on air conditioning costs, more and more homes have attics…