A couple of months ago, I was reading a discussion in one of the many LinkedIn groups that I belong to and came acros a comment arguing that energy efficiency requirements drive builders out of business. Here's part of what…
I've written a lot about HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) companies in the Energy Vanguard blog, and a lot of what I've written is pretty critical. I've ruminated about why they won't do things right, gone on a tirade…
Guest Post by Sean Lintow, who has been in three classes I taught (HERS, ENERGY STAR Version 3, and Advanced HVAC for Raters) and uses Energy Vanguard Energy Ratings as his HERS provider. Guest Post by Sean Lintow, who has…
When I first became a HERS rater and went to the RESNET conference in 2004, I got to talk with David Lee, who was the head of the ENERGY STAR homes program at the time. Because I was puzzled by…
As I've mentioned here before, I live in a 40 year old condo that's a good example of what happens when you build something without understanding the principles of building science. I've previously written about the crawl space problems in…
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…
Here's Why That's the Wrong Question! If you're investing in energy efficiency improvements for your existing home or buying a new high performance home, calculating the simple payback for your investment is at best incomplete and at worst, completely irrelevant.…
Have you heard? Incandescent light bulbs will be phased out, beginning in 2012. This was part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law by former President Bush. The ban targets general purpose light bulbs that…
Here's another item for the myths of energy conservation category: In most homes, ceiling fans do NOT save energy. It's not that they can't save energy; it's just that most people don't understand how to use them to do so,…
I recall a lot of talk in the early ‘90s about the ‘peace dividend’ and how we’d spend it. This new term entered our lexicon because of the fall of the Soviet Union and the supposed billions of dollars that…