I built a house out of structural insulated panels (SIPs) before I'd ever done—or even watched—a blower door test. It turned out to be pretty dang airtight, too, despite my lack of air sealing experience at the time. If I'd…
You'd never settle for a recirculating toilet, would you? Press the lever and everything in the bowl just swirls around and around. Never leaving, just recirculating. That's the image Professor John Straube painted for us last week in his talk…
Habitat for Humanity is showing that affordable housing and high-performance homes isn't an either/or choice. They've been doing great work and going in this direction for a long time, but in the past 5 years, they've really stepped it up…
On 1 July 2012, the ENERGY STAR new homes program moves fully (well, almost) into Version 3. Currently, the ENERGY STAR team at the US EPA is up to Revision 5 of Version 3, and some items have been delayed,…
We're making progress! With the all the emphasis on energy codes and energy efficiency programs like ENERGY STAR New Homes, more homes are getting Manual J heating and cooling load calculations these days. The intent is that the heating and…
Energy Vanguard is pleased to announce that it has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a 2012 ENERGY STAR Leadership in Housing Award. This award recognizes the important contribution Energy Vanguard has made to energy-efficient home…
On my thousand-mile quality assurance road trip last week, I visited a house that was designed to produce more energy than it uses, making it a net zero energy home. You can take any house all the way to net…
The number of people at the 2012 RESNET Conference was about the same as last year. It's the first time in a few years that it hasn't grown over the previous year's attendance. Does that mean anything? I think so.…
A few months back, I received the following email about payment to design the HVAC system for a new ENERGY STAR home. The author of the email is a home energy rater, and my client. The “HVAC guy” is the…
The transition to ENERGY STAR Version 3 accelerated on 1 January. That's when Version 2 of the program expired. Now all new homes in the program will qualify under Version 2.5 or Version 3, depending on the dates of permitting…