Yesterday I got to see something I learned about only two weeks ago at Building Science Summer Camp. That's where I found out that 85% of all expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam insulation in Germany is grey because it has graphite…
Should you use natural gas heating rather than a heat pump in your home? Some say the interest in heat pumps is fueled by irrational exuberance. Others say that because they require supplemental heat, heat pump performance is not acceptable.…
Duct leakage testing has come a long way. We've gone from doing the subtraction method with blower doors to having specialized duct pressurization blowers. We've also evolved in how we seal the ducts for a test, going from kraft paper/masking…
"A New Zealand technician got fire balled in the face," a member of the HVAC-talk.com forum stated bluntly. He was referring to a case where an HVAC tech got burned when he thought he was working on a system with…
I think I first heard the term greenwashing in 1990, as I was getting ready for the big 20th anniversary Earth Day event in Tarpon Springs, Florida. 'Green' was starting to get some traction as a marketing term meaning 'environmentally-friendly'…
Air conditioners use refrigerants to move heat from inside your home to the outdoors. The old refrigerants were bad for the ozone layer in the stratosphere. The first replacement, R-22, is better but was meant to be used only as…
When you think of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), do you think of atomic clocks and hunks of metal that serve as standards of mass and length? Or do you think of cutting edge research in net…
I was a kid a long, long time ago. Seems like it was another century...another millennium even. Wait a minute — it was another millennium! That was back in the day when we used to ride bicycles without helmets, apply…
I'm new to global warming. I didn't hear about it until 1983. Even thirty years ago, the science behind the greenhouse effect and global warming was well known. French Physicist and mathematician Joseph Fourier (shown at left) is generally credited…
Spray foam insulation evokes some interesting conversation among building science professionals, those in construction, environmentalists, and homeowners who have it in their homes. Many think it solves all problems, no matter how poorly it's installed. Some think it's helping to…