Ah, textbooks, those compendia of facts and figures that we lug around when we're in school. We do multitudinous homework assignments out of them and spend countless hours trying to make sense of the great collections of information within them.…
The most terrified I've ever been was was the time I got called to do a home energy audit of the haunted house-as-a-system down the street. I still shudder when I think of that night. Yes, it was nighttime. The…
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…
"Ma'am, we've just tested your house and found your infiltration rate to be 16.7 ACH50, your R-values to be only 26% of the IECC limits, your duct Qn to be 0.42, and windows to have improper SHGCs. Furthermore, your drainage…
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…
Do you really need to go to college? If your heart's not in it, you can't find a field of study that excites you, and your college degree doesn't help your job prospects, the answer may be no. But what…
A few years ago, a student of mine told a funny story in a home energy rater class. He was an HVAC contractor and said he was installing a new air conditioner for an elderly woman. As he was explaining…
I've seen it over and over: The central air conditioner's ceiling vents raining down onto the floor. The insulation liner on the duct in the crawl space holding a gallon or two of water. The office that has spots appearing…
Rod had a major duct failure going on in his crawl space. It was summertime when I visited and took the photos you see in this article, and the ducts had four serious problems that robbed his air conditioner of…
OK, so 2 years ago I wrote that I didn't need no stinkin' Building Science Summer Camp. I lied. Summer Camp doesn't stink at all. In fact, it's a really nice event where I learned a lot and got to…