The REAL Reason We Need Building Science
I LOVE this photo! It has nothing to do with building science. Or does it? As we humans have progressed from living in caves to mud huts to stone buildings to the stick-built structures many of us in the US…
comfort
Don’t Kill Your Air Flow with This Flex Duct Disease
I like flex duct. Really! In fact, I did an interview yesterday for the Energy Saving in the Home Radio Show and surprised the host, I think, when I said that to him. He's an HVAC contractor himself and is…
Why an Oversized Air Conditioner Is a Bad Idea
Apparently, I haven't written a single article this summer about oversized air conditioners. Shame on me! I've written several in previous summers, mostly about how HVAC contractors bypass the HVAC design process by using rules of thumb and how they…
How Energy Efficient Is Your Ceiling Fan?
I was in one of the big box home improvement stores yesterday and thought I'd take a look at ceiling fans while I was there. Ten years ago when I was building a house and buying a bunch of ceiling…
The Mystery of the Ventilating Dehumidifier
Sometimes I find the most amazing mysteries in people's homes, usually in nasty crawl spaces or attics. Here is one such story. The photo at left shows a whole-house dehumidifier. It's tied in with the heating and cooling system, which…
The Pretty Good House, Part 2
Let's get back to the Pretty Good House concept now. Last month I wrote part 1, called What Would a "Pretty Good House" Look Like? There I discussed mainly the design, building envelope, and heating and cooling systems. Here I'll…
Thermal Comfort: Everyone Wants It but Few Know the ASHRAE Standard
GUEST POST: As the Affordable Comfort conference kicks off today, it's appropriate to take a look at what comfort is and how we construct buildings to have the best shot at getting it. Robert Bean is an engineer in Calgary…
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,…
5 Questions to Ask When Replacing Your Air Conditioner
Air conditioners don't last forever. Shocking, I know. The good news, though, is that if you have an old air conditioning system, replacing it should save you money. Efficiency has improved a lot since that old hunk of metal and…
Does Your Bonus Room Need More Air Conditioning?
You know what a bonus room is, right? It's more descriptively called a FROG, for finished room over garage, and it typically has vaulted ceilings and attic kneewalls (more on that later). I love the name FROG for this room,…