Bathrooms need some way of exhausting air. Mostly it's to keep the humidity down, but, depending on who lives in the house, the bathroom also can be a source of a lot of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Not all homes…
Ah, who can resist the ambiance of a crackling fire! Well, it turns out quite a few can. Whether to use a fireplace or not is a controversial topic in building science. The main problem is that a typical wood-burning…
A lot of volunteers gathered in Decatur, Georgia this past weekend for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Service Project. They worked at a number of sites doing all kinds things to improve the homes of low-income senior citizens. The…
Everyone's talking about heat pumps. These machines for heating buildings can exchange heat with the outdoors in multiple ways, of course. Ground-coupled heat pumps pull heat out of the ground or water and send it to heat the building. But…
This week I saw a photo that will haunt me for the rest of my life. It's one thing to know something. It's another to see it. I've been writing about indoor air quality and the health effects of indoor…
Here we are in the midst of another holiday season. You may already find yourself in a house full of relatives and friends, wondering what you might be able to do at the last minute to improve your indoor air…
Recently I wrote about how bad it is when architects give HVAC designers a little closet to put the mechanical equipment and ductwork in. Make it a mechanical room, I said. But here's the thing. Size isn't the only thing…
Whether you're thinking of getting a heat pump or you already have one, knowing these heat pump basics can help you get the right heat pump and operate it properly. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) here in the US has…
The latest US energy consumption chart from the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) is out. That's it above. (Click here to download a high resolution version.) As always, it's full of interesting data. You can learn a lot about how…
Imagine the house of your dreams. It's beautiful and laid out efficiently. You're always comfortable. It promotes health and happiness. The operating costs are low. You don't have to spend much to maintain it. You don't get a lot of…