The Demon in My Ducts
KERKLUNK!I instantly spring up in my bed at the loud noise. "What the heck was that?!" I don't know but it seemed to have come out of the heating vent on the wall above my dresser.I'd been lying quietly in bed…
fun
How to Talk Like a Building Scientist
Everyone these days wants to be a building scientist. It's the second most popular branch of the sciences, after all (the most popular being physics, naturally). So today let's discuss how you can enhance your future in building science by…
The 2018 Building Science Summer Camp in Photos
Building Science Summer Camp, officially known as the Westford Symposium on Building Science, took place this week. I'll write more about it next week, but to give you a flavor of it, here are a few photos from the 2018…
How Many Tons of Air Does Your HVAC System Move?
We live in this invisible stuff called air. (But of course you knew that.) We pump it into and out of our lungs. We exhaust it from our bathrooms and kitchens. We cycle it through our heating and air conditioning…
Classic Works of Building Science Literature
Yesterday was Energy Efficiency Day. I saw a lot tweets on the topic, and the photo above, showing the movie poster for The Insulated Man, was in one of them. That, of course, got me thinking about other classic works…
The Joy of Flex
One week ago I spoke at the Westford Symposium on Building Science. You may know it better as Building Science Summer Camp, since that's what everyone calls it. I wrote up a little summary of the whole conference last week…
61 Things We Should Ban to Improve Home Building
Let's face it. The state of home building isn't good. Yes, we have building science and energy codes and green building programs out the wazoo. We have cool new products and home energy raters and even Joe Lstiburek. Despite all…
7 Things I Learned at the North American Passive House Conference
Yesterday I returned home from the North American Passive House Conference. It was great, as it always is. Wait. No, this was the best one yet. On the 10th anniversary of the first conference, PHIUS put on an amazing conference.…
How I Achieved a 21% Increase in Airtightness
I've got a record of 14 blower door tests on my condo. Many of them were during home energy rater classes, as we'd bring them here for the confirmed rating they needed to complete. The early ones were horrible! But…
2 Home Performance Music Videos You Just Gotta See
Today I have a special treat for you. These two music videos give a whole new meaning to the term "home performance." The first one came out in 2009, just as the ARRA program was about to crank up. The…