We got a couple inches of snow here in Atlanta over the holidays. That always offers a great look at heat loss through the ceiling, so I love to get outside and take pictures. After the snow has been on…
Back in grad school, I was taking a class in surface physics, and my friend Steve asked, "What is temperature?" On first hearing that question, you might think it's so obvious that it doesn't even bear asking, and anyone who…
Starting on the 1st of January 2011, all new homes permitted in Georgia must have a Blower Door test! You heard, right? I've written about this twice before - last April, when the new Georgia state energy code was finalized…
It seems so simple. There’s outside, and there’s inside. The walls, ceilings, and floors that separate the cold outside from the warm inside should be the only surfaces that rob heat from your home. Interior walls have conditioned space on…
It just drives me crazy! When you see news stories in the media about improving your home's energy efficiency, they invariably tell you to caulk your windows and weatherstrip your doors. There are enough home energy pros now that we…
Nine years it's been already. It's hard to believe it's been that long. In 2001, I was building a house out of structural insulated panels (SIPs) - and loving it! It was an absolutely gorgeous month to spend outdoors in…
"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" Homer Simpson said that, and it's good advice for all of us. Actually, we don't really have a choice, you know. If, out of ignorance or dissent, we do things that…
It took me a while to figure out that a building is basically just a structural framework with control layers. Yeah, there's also electrical, plumbing, mechanical systems, and finishes, but the heart of a building is the stuff that holds…
Up and down. Left and right. Good and evil. Black and white. The world is full of such dichotomies. Often, however, what happens between the endpoints of a spectrum is the most interesting. As a physics graduate student, I studied…
Do you have light colored carpet in your home that has dark edges where it meets the baseboard? If so, don't beat yourself up so much for not being a good enough house cleaner. The problem is probably in your…