Steve Larson, a builder and home energy rater in Florida, recently sent me an email with his energy bills for February through July of this year. When you subtract out the monthly service charges, he paid only $5.35 for electricity…
BCAP is the Building Codes Assistance Project, the organization that provides the Online Code Environment and Advocacy Network (OCEAN). I wrote about them last year and all the great work they do, including their weekly email updates* for those who…
Windows. The bane of the building scientist's existence. As we try to control the flow of moisture, air, and heat, a lot of our problems occur at windows. If the flashing's not done properly, they leak water. If they're not…
On 1 July 2012, the ENERGY STAR new homes program moves fully (well, almost) into Version 3. Currently, the ENERGY STAR team at the US EPA is up to Revision 5 of Version 3, and some items have been delayed,…
A lot of home builders and homeowners are getting certified home energy ratings to find out how efficient their homes are. There's also a lot of buzz about HERS ratings, with builders looking at them as a tool for marketing…
Smart people in the home-building industry have a saying about codes: A code-built house is the worst house allowed by law. The implication behind that statement is that if all you're doing is meeting the code, you're probably short-changing the…
We're making progress! With the all the emphasis on energy codes and energy efficiency programs like ENERGY STAR New Homes, more homes are getting Manual J heating and cooling load calculations these days. The intent is that the heating and…
I'm talking about the hole the plumbers cut for the bathtub drain. If you have a bathtub sitting on a floor over an space like a vented crawl space or unconditioned basement, this hole allows air to move freely between…
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…
Hey, Californians, look out. You're not number 1 anymore. Nope. You're number 2 now. In their annual assessment of how the states are doing with energy efficiency, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has pronounced Massachusetts the…