I've got the curse, you know. I can't walk into a building and not check out what's going on with ductwork, windows, and anything else that lets me apply what I know about building science. Yesterday, I went to lunch…
When you approach the subject of building science, especially as it regards heat, air, and moisture flows through the building enclosure, it's easy to get confused. There's a lot to learn: blower door testing, insulation grading, R-value, permeance, radiant barriers,…
Now that Summer Camp is over, I'm excited about Boot Camp. That would be the Builders' Boot Camp that Community Housing Partners (CHP) puts on each year. It's being held on 30-31 August. I haven't been part of it before,…
One week ago I spoke at the Westford Symposium on Building Science. You may know it better as Building Science Summer Camp, since that's what everyone calls it. I wrote up a little summary of the whole conference last week…
A comfortable, energy efficient home begins with a good building enclosure. That means control layers. You've got to control the flows of moisture, air, and heat. Today, let's talk about controlling heat and further, let's focus on heat going through…
Well, another Building Science Summer Camp has come and gone. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you probably know about it. You may even know that I have a special history with it. Dr. Joseph Lstiburek and…
Last month I told you about the new certified rating and code compliance program that's launching in Florida. I mentioned there will be a training for it at the Southeast Building Conference (SEBC) in Orlando this month. And now I…
I've just returned home from Long Beach, California, where I've spent the past five days attending the ASHRAE conference, which focuses on heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration. One of the things I heard there was this statement: 95% of…
Let's face it. The state of home building isn't good. Yes, we have building science and energy codes and green building programs out the wazoo. We have cool new products and home energy raters and even Joe Lstiburek. Despite all…
To this point in our little series on duct design, we've been calculating intermediate quantitites: available static pressure, total effective length, and friction rate. Today we use all that to find out how big the ducts need to be. We're…