Building enclosure control freaks know that a good exterior sheathing can make a huge difference in performance. Controlling the flows of moisture, air, and heat requires good control layers. A lot of materials and methods will get you there, but…
Back in my home performance contracting days (2004 to 2007), I spent a lot of time in unconditioned attics and crawl spaces. First, I was there to find problems. Then, if the homeowners hired me, I'd go in and do…
Poor installation of insulation matters. Even in cases where you might think the R-value won't be affected, it is. Eleven years ago this month, I wrote an article about one of the most important and misunderstood principles in building science. …
Sizing a heating or cooling system should start with an assessment of the heating or cooling load. Nowadays, we know the physics behind heat transfer, so we can come up with fairly accurate predictions of how much heating and cooling…
Here in the South, we love our humidity. It makes us glisten in the summer. But we also love our air conditioning and low humidity inside our homes. To save on air conditioning costs, more and more homes have attics…
The number one thing you need to do to protect a building is control water. As the Canadian building scientist Gus Handegord said, "The three biggest problems in buildings are water, water, and water." So, with the 1961 house I…
An attic that's brought inside the building enclosure is a beautiful thing. This is most often done with spray polyurethane foam (SPF) insulation, either open-cell or closed-cell. Here in the southeastern US, open-cell is most often the spray foam of…
Ah, so many choices. If you want to design and install a duct system to create problems, the possibilities are endless. I've certainly written about a lot of them (as well as how to do it properly). Today, though, let's…
The Home Innovation Research Labs (HIRL) does an annual survey of home builders to find out what they're doing. The results of their 2019 survey of the homes built in 2018 are out now, and they recently published an interesting…
"Don't sweat the small stuff," they say. You know what, though? That may be great advice for your emotional life but it's terrible advice for just about anything to do with buildings. Whether you're designing them, specifying materials, putting them…