Simple Roofs Perform Better
Ten years ago, I spent a fair amount of time up on the roof of the SIP house I was building. Now, Martin Holladay, the famous Energy Nerd of Green Building Advisor, has an article titled Martin’s Ten Rules of…
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Naked People Need Building Science
Don't you just love to strip down to your socks and jump on the bed? As a kid, you may not get away with it, but you're a grown man or woman now, so who's to stop you? And then,…
Bob Vila and the Vent-Free Gas Fireplace — A Sorry State of Affairs
A few days ago I ran across an article about gas fireplaces on Bob Vila's website. Naturally, I wanted to read their take on vent-free gas fireplaces (sometimes called ventless, unvented, or just plain stupid). "Vent-free technology, once considered controversial,…
Fire! — Understanding What’s Happening in Your Combustion Appliances
Fire is just so dang interesting! Its discovery by our early ancestors changed the lives of humans forever. Who doesn't love a good fire?! When I was about 8 years old, I got so fascinated with it that Bubba, my…
Don’t Let the Turkey Get You Down! Carbon Monoxide Alert
I love Thanksgiving! It's my favorite holiday, full of memories of big meals at my grandparents' house in Leesville, Louisiana. We all sat around the big round table made by my grandfather, Allison Sr., ate way too much turkey, stuffing,…
Do You Need an Extreme Home Makeover to Get a Soundproof Home?
Recently I saw an episode of Extreme Home Makeover in which Ty Pennington and crew built a house for an Iraq war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because noise was a huge trigger for the stress attacks he experienced…
U R A ΔT, and Other Building Science Blandishments
Remember that science class where you learned about the three forms of heat flow: conduction, convection, and radiation? Well, class, let's make it real today. You insulate your walls, floors, and ceilings to limit the amount of heat your home…
Won’t That Stink? — Living in a Green Home with a Composting Toilet
Ten years ago I was building a green home. It had passive solar features, was built out of structural insulated panels, sent all the greywater out to the back yard to water fruit trees, and was going to be super…
Guardian Building Products Makes the Right Move
Yesterday I received an email and letter from Steve Ziessler, president and CEO of Guardian Building Products. In it, he apologized for their heavy-handed approach to expressing their displeasure with seeing their fiberglass batts pictured in an article on poor…
Why Is Guardian Building Products Threatening Energy Vanguard?
[UPDATE: 11/8/11 I received an apology today from the president and CEO of Guardian. More about that in the follow-up post.] See that photo? It's one of the reasons that I received a nasty letter from Guardian Building Products, a manufacturer…