You may recall that in 2021 Zehnder America gave me one of their premium energy recovery ventilators (ERV) with all the components I needed to get it up and running in my house. It's taken longer than I wanted to…
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…
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…
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…
![Pulling Air From The Crawl Space To Cool The House Is A Really Stupid Thing To Do With Air [Photo Courtesy Of E3 Innovate In Nashville, TN]](https://www.energyvanguard.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/cool-air-intake-crawl-space-e3-innovate.jpg)
The Talking Heads said it best: "Air can hurt you, too." And it does it in so many ways. It can hurt your pocketbook. It can make you uncomfortable. It can make you sweat. It can make you sick. And,…
I've been in a lot of old houses and seen a lot of interesting things. One of the things I love about that is trying to figure out the mysteries I find. Lately, the mysteries I've been encountering are in…
Let’s talk about the controversial issue of venting an unconditioned attic with outdoor air. It's easy to confuse causes and symptoms sometimes, and that happens a lot with attic ventilation. I'll say upfront, though, that the International Residential Code requires…
Cold air is dry air, right? Think about the humidity in your house in winter compared to what it is in summer. If you're in a humid climate, it's going to be drier in winter. Even in dry climates, it's…
My house exhibits an interesting phenomenon on occasion. A lot of people who understand building science sometimes jump to the wrong conclusion when they see it. Hey, I did the same thing myself at first, too. The puzzle lies in…
You'd think that after more than 12 years and a thousand-plus articles, I'd have mentioned all the major building science terms by now. Yet, here we are. I just did a search of all the articles in this blog and…