This is the first article of a two-part guest post by David Butler of Optimal Building Systems in Arizona and a frequent commenter in the RESNET BPI group on LinkedIn. I've known David for a couple of years now, and…
One of my all time favorite books is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It’s really good on a lot of levels, but one thing that really stuck with me was the author’s discussion of how…
I guess you could call me a contrarian. I usually go in the opposite direction from the crowds. In 1997, for example, I spent two weeks in Portugal, where most people head for the beaches south of Lisbon. Instead, I…
When I wrote about my trip to the Southeast Building Conference (SEBC) in July, I mentioned how some products on display there really annoyed me because they're either bad to the bone or overhyped. The main one in the latter…
If you're in the market for a new heating & cooling system and you're looking at heat pumps, make sure you understand how they're rated for efficiency - and which rating is more important for you. If you're in the…
I've just finished going over the newly released ENERGY STAR 2011 guidelines for new homes and, as you might expect, I'm happy about some of the new requirements and disappointed/perplexed about others. Overall, though, the program is moving in the…