I get asked variations of this question often enough that it's worth addressing here. If you're doing a blower door test, how big a house can you test with one fan? Or, put another way, how many blower doors do…
A couple of years ago, my friend Steve Byers of Energy Logic wrote an article about how to get the most out of your conference experience. In it, he included a link to a paper titled 15 Tips from Keith…
I've written a lot about duct problems, especially those in flex duct because they're so abundant. A couple of years ago, I even wrote an article about whether or not flex duct should be banned. My answer was no but…
I'm new to global warming. I didn't hear about it until 1983. Even thirty years ago, the science behind the greenhouse effect and global warming was well known. French Physicist and mathematician Joseph Fourier (shown at left) is generally credited…
If you install fiberglass batt insulation* with a kraft paper vapor retarder in a home, which way do you face the vapor retarder? To the inside of the home or the outside of the home? For many building science questions,…
One thing that invariably surprises people when I walk them through a house during their first blower door test is how much air leaks in through the electrical switches and receptacles. On Friday, we went out to do the last…
Last night, I was reading Surrealizations: The Gospel According To Chicken* before I went to sleep. That's always dangerous and liberating, but one question he raised got me to thinking about all of the imaginary home performance questions I'm bombarded…
This morning I discovered that the Sustainable Building Association in the UK had linked to our site, writing: Energy Vanguard has a huge amount of excellent building science and especially air tightness info. Sadly it is US based which means…
I've written a couple of articles recently about the complexities of mechanical ventilation and the battles going on regarding when to install it, how much to ventilate, and whether ASHRAE 62.2 is worth all the resources we're throwing at it.…
With the help of people who know a lot more than I do, I'm slowly getting this stuff figured out. I wrote about my problems with using ACHnat a while back, and when I posted that article at Green Building…