Insolation Is Not a Typo for Insulation
In 1993 I took a graduate course in solar energy from Professor Yogi Goswami. It was a great course, and one of the projects we had to do was to compile a whole binder full of solar radiation data for…
solar energy
A Beautiful Solar Home in Utah Nears Net Zero Energy Use
I'm writing this on St. Patrick's Day so let me tell you a wee bit about the O'Mearas. Kevin and Svetlana O'Meara live in a beautiful home in Utah that's oh-so-close to being a net zero energy home. After I…
Solar Electricity: “The Final Source of Energy”
Back in 1982, I was an undergraduate studying physics and listening to the Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. I loved my OMD album and was captivated by the song Electricity. Towards the end of the…
A Great Success: Classic 1970s Solar Home Turned Net Zero
I've been in Lexington, Kentucky this week at the Midwest Residential Energy Conference. It was great! (And I played nice - I didn't mention in any of my talks that I'm a Florida Gator.) One of the many highlights for…
A Net Zero Energy Home in a Beautiful Green Community
I spoke at Serenbe,† a beautiful green community southwest of Atlanta, this weekend and got a chance to visit a net zero energy home while there. Built by Luis Imery, one of the home energy raters we're a HERS provider…
Fixing an Old House? Follow Einstein’s Advice
I get a lot of questions from people asking how they should go about fixing their homes. Sometimes it's specific (What's the best way to insulate my kneewalls?), and sometimes it's a hands up in the air, With all these…
Take a Hot Solar Shower in the Backcountry with the Road Shower
Solar energy is what powers most of what we do. Whether it's growing the food we eat, fueling the ancient organisms that died to make fossil fuels, or converting sunlight to electricity in photovoltaic panels, pretty much all of the…
Total Energy Use Down in US, Wind & Solar Up
I love those Sankey diagrams showing the energy flows in the US. You can find two versions of them put out by different parts of the federal government. The US Energy Information Administration (US EIA) puts out one type, but…
The Secrets of Liars — How to Detect an Internet Solar Energy Scam
All I was trying to do was find some football scores on Yahoo the other day when I saw it. I don't go looking for this stuff, and when I do see it, I try to ignore it. But this…
4 Ways to Define Net Zero Energy Use in Buildings
ASHRAE† is meeting in Denver this week, and my friend Robert Bean, the mastermind behind the Healthy Heating website, tweeted the other day that they're going on a tour of NREL's new net zero energy building. I'd love to go—both…