When I wrote about the debate over the terms 'building envelope' vs. 'building enclosure' a couple of weeks ago, I favored the former but overall felt agnostic on whether we should choose one over the other. I didn't think I'd…
If you travel down into the building science vortex, you start discovering that people argue over a lot of things that most people never think twice about. Wait. Most people probably never think once about these things. Earlier this year…
As I sit here getting ready to head for the airport, a lot of thoughts about what I've experienced and heard here at the Passive House conference are swirling around my head. They haven't really congealed into a coherent body…
Yesterday I observed an interesting discussion on Twitter. Carl Seville, the Green Building Curmudgeon, posted a link to his article suggesting that maybe we should just ban all batt insulation. Greg La Vardera, an architect who really understands the building…
If there's one building science topic that confuses more people in construction than any other, I think I'd say it's the purposes and properties of the various control layers. I'm talking about the materials that are meant to control the…
I grew up with really bad asthma. Not being able to get enough air into your lungs, in case you haven't experienced it, is pretty scary. I remember lying in bed during one asthma attack, gasping for air, wheezing loudly,…
Evidently, I'm an oddball. We published a guest post by engineer Robert Bean on comfort and ASHRAE Standard 55 a few weeks ago, and when I first read the article, one sentence jumped off the screen, grabbed me by the…
In one corner, we have a core of people who have dedicated themselves to preserving old buildings. In the other corner is a group that strives to save energy by making buildings more efficient. These two groups often charge out…
On one of my recent quality assurance trips for our HERS raters, I made a discovery of a building envelope problem that's best told in pictures. When I went into the attic, what I noticed first was that the blown…
New houses certified in the LEED for Homes program will be required to have 100% windows in all above-grade walls once the new 2012 update is approved by US Green Building Council (USGBC) members this summer. The LEED certification program…