spray foam Archives - Energy Vanguard https://www.energyvanguard.com/tag/spray-foam/ Building science knowledge, HVAC design, & fun Tue, 27 Aug 2024 10:54:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 A Fistful of New Building Science Videos https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-fistful-of-new-building-science-videos/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-fistful-of-new-building-science-videos/#view_comments Mon, 26 Aug 2024 20:00:40 +0000 https://www.energyvanguard.com/?p=9175 We’re doing some new things here at Energy Vanguard.  We’ve had a YouTube channel since 2010 but haven’t done much with it.  So one of the new things is working on putting out new videos every week.  Here are the…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-fistful-of-new-building-science-videos/feed/ 1 Uncovering the Secrets of an Old House https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/uncovering-the-secrets-of-an-old-house/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/uncovering-the-secrets-of-an-old-house/#view_comments Tue, 06 Jun 2023 13:59:33 +0000 https://www.energyvanguard.com/?p=8306 I’ve been in a lot of old houses and seen a lot of interesting things.  One of the things I love about that is trying to figure out the mysteries I find.  Lately, the mysteries I’ve been encountering are in…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/uncovering-the-secrets-of-an-old-house/feed/ 6 A Frosty Heat Loss Puzzler https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-frosty-heat-loss-puzzler/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-frosty-heat-loss-puzzler/#view_comments Wed, 02 Nov 2022 19:09:41 +0000 https://www.energyvanguard.com/?p=7897 My house exhibits an interesting phenomenon on occasion.  A lot of people who understand building science sometimes jump to the wrong conclusion when they see it.  Hey, I did the same thing myself at first, too.  The puzzle lies in…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-frosty-heat-loss-puzzler/feed/ 33 Can an Exhaust Fan Control Humidity in a Spray Foam Attic? https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/can-an-exhaust-fan-control-humidity-in-a-spray-foam-attic/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/can-an-exhaust-fan-control-humidity-in-a-spray-foam-attic/#view_comments Wed, 02 Jun 2021 16:02:51 +0000 https://www.energyvanguard.com/?p=5823 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…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/can-an-exhaust-fan-control-humidity-in-a-spray-foam-attic/feed/ 84 Does Spray Foam in the Attic Make It a High-Performance Home? https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/does-spray-foam-in-the-attic-make-it-a-high-performance-home/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/does-spray-foam-in-the-attic-make-it-a-high-performance-home/#view_comments Wed, 05 May 2021 15:58:34 +0000 https://www.energyvanguard.com/?p=5693 Ten years ago, Georgia led the United States in adopting a new energy code.  Perhaps the biggest advance was that it required all new homes to meet a threshold for airtightness (7 ACH50).  Now most states require blower door tests…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/does-spray-foam-in-the-attic-make-it-a-high-performance-home/feed/ 22 Seizing an Air-Sealing and Insulating Opportunity https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/seizing-air-sealing-insulating-opportunity/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/seizing-air-sealing-insulating-opportunity/#view_comments Sun, 10 Nov 2019 14:14:54 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=seizing-an-air-sealing-and-insulating-opportunity 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…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/seizing-air-sealing-insulating-opportunity/feed/ 10 Spray Foam Insulation at the Edge – A Forensic Analysis https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/spray-foam-insulation-edge-forensic-analysis/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/spray-foam-insulation-edge-forensic-analysis/#view_comments Fri, 08 Nov 2019 13:55:44 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=spray-foam-insulation-at-the-edge-a-forensic-analysis 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…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/spray-foam-insulation-edge-forensic-analysis/feed/ 25 How Can You Air Seal These Joists Over the Garage? https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/how-can-you-air-seal-these-joists-over-garage/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/how-can-you-air-seal-these-joists-over-garage/#view_comments Tue, 02 May 2017 01:00:29 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=how-can-you-air-seal-these-joists-over-the-garage The I-joists in the photo above run across the top of the wall between the dining room and the garage. In the old days, before anyone worried at all about air moving through those joist cavities, the builder didn’t do…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/how-can-you-air-seal-these-joists-over-garage/feed/ 9 You Can Now Comment on the Spray Foam Attic Article https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/you-can-now-comment-on-the-spray-foam-attic-article/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/you-can-now-comment-on-the-spray-foam-attic-article/#view_comments Fri, 28 Oct 2016 04:00:00 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=you-can-now-comment-on-the-spray-foam-attic-article My website host (Hubspot) had a problem when I published my last article, High Humidity in a Spray Foam Attic, Part 2. If you wanted to comment and were not allowed, that problem has been fixed. I apologize for the…

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]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/you-can-now-comment-on-the-spray-foam-attic-article/feed/ 2 High Humidity in a Spray Foam Attic, Part 2 https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/high-humidity-in-a-spray-foam-attic-part-2/ https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/high-humidity-in-a-spray-foam-attic-part-2/#view_comments Wed, 26 Oct 2016 04:00:00 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=high-humidity-in-a-spray-foam-attic-part-2 Three weeks ago, I wrote about an attic with spray foam insulation and the interesting humidity pattern we observed in it. We placed data loggers near the ridge and floor of the attic as well as in the living space…

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