An Improved System for Even Faster Hot Water
I missed an opportunity. You may recall the retrofit I did in 2022 to get faster hot water at three of my fixtures. It made a huge improvement, but it could have been even better. But before I go there,…
environment & sustainability
The Achilles’ Heel of Heat Pumps
Air source heat pumps are a great way to keep a home comfortable. On the cooling side, they're exactly the same as an air conditioner. In heating mode, though, they have a limitation that other types of heating equipment don't…
Are We Decarbonizing Yet?
The latest US energy consumption chart from the Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) is out. That's it above. (Click here to download a high resolution version.) As always, it's full of interesting data. You can learn a lot about how…
The Meaning of Rejected Energy
I love the US energy flow charts published by the Lawrence Livermore National Lab each year. The chart for 2021 came out in April, and you can see it in its full glory above. (Right click to download the full…
Lloyd Alter Is Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle
Lloyd Alter, architect and prolific blogger at Treehugger, has a new book. Titled Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle,* the book is an exploration of what it takes to live within a pretty strict carbon budget. That means tracking the carbon…
Is a Heat Pump More Efficient Than a Furnace?
The two primary ways you can heat your house are by burning a fuel (e.g., fossil gas, fuel oil, wood) or using electricity. Furnaces and boilers distribute the heat from combustion to heat a house. Electric resistance heat makes sense…
How’s the New Home Electrification Movement Going?
On the new home electrification front, the Home Innovation Research Labs released some interesting data this month. You may have noticed that going all-electric with buildings and transportation has become a thing in the past few years. Climate change is…
How to Spot Deceptive Heating Efficiency Claims
Sometimes companies that make products stretch the truth, embellish features, or rely on their potential customers' ignorance of how things work. Shocking, I know. The world of electric heating has such companies. But if you're looking for a device that…
The #1 Reason to Have an All-Electric Home
Maybe you've heard the rumblings coming out of the environmental and building science crowd. Maybe not. But it's getting louder lately. The rumbling I'm alluding to is the move to switch from natural gas to electricity as the energy carrier…
The 3 Main Sources of Home Heating
It's wintertime in the Northern hemisphere and that means we're heating our homes. The new year started off a bit on the warm side, with the temperature at nearly 70° F (21° C) here in the Atlanta area. In terms…