Ed Voytovich's Page

"Ellie." "Ellie who?"  "The Elephant in the living room."

The elephant in our room is NOx, and elephants eat a lot.  Then they poop.  A lot. We need to watch where we step. 

As technicians following the BPI Standards, we test for CO in the flue as well as in the ambient air as part of any audit where there are combustion appliances.  Imagine my surprise when my new…

    No, I’m not thinking of your grandfather’s hand saw . . . the one that cuts on the push stroke instead of on the pull stroke like the excellent Japanese hand saws. 

   Nor am I thinking of the beautiful (cast aluminum?) circular saws made by Rockwell right here in Syracuse for many years, but long since largely replaced by inexpensive tools made out of plastic and chewing gum.

(There are of course plenty of…

Can anyone convince me that this picture shows anything other than the fact that the ventilation provided here is effective only in the first five inches down from the ridge? And yes, there is continuous soffit venting that is baffled and open to the…

 This blog is cross-posted with Remodeling Magazine with the kind permission of the editor.

Let me recommend an excellent, well-written blog indeed.  Melissa Baldridge goes well beyond the nuts-and-bolts conversations in which we so often engage, and she presents ideas from a broader perspective.  At the point where remodeling meets building performance, the industry necessarily concerns…