Featured Blog Posts – October 2010 Archive (10)

Several new episodes of WxTV are up for viewing. If you haven't taken a bit of time to check WxTV, now's your chance! Just go to our website at: www.weatherization.org/wxtv and choose any of the episodes there. We love to get feedback and find out what you want to see, so don't be shy.



Thanks to Jim and the Home Energy Magazine group for inviting us to participate in this group - a great magazine and a fantastic group of folks.… Continue

Ben Bustamante works on Leslie's house. Photo by Leslie Jackson

When Home Energy’s part-time Associate Editor Leslie Jackson got home from a trip to New Orleans, where she did research on the rebuilding since Hurricane Katrina, she got a message on her phone. It was…

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It’s not easy being Green … even if you have a Ph.D. in the subject. Kermit was right, but I’m on a mission to prove him wrong.



Moving to a new home in mid-2008 presented a…

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Yesterday I went to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) for a meeting of the State Codes Advisory Committee (SCAC). Wait, wait, don't leave yet! I promise there's good stuff in here.

OK, let's try that again.

Yesterday I saw a bunch of guys sitting around a table make a groundbreaking decision that will alter the lives of home builders, energy raters, and utility customers. Yes, I'm talking about the great work done by the…

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I'm in St. Petersburg, Florida, attending the National

Community Action Foundation and Community Investment Futures Energy

Conference. Today is the conference kick-off and I'm looking

forward to learning more about how community action agencies (CAA's),

the prime movers of the US DOE weatherization program, are using energy

leveraging… Continue

While the following discussion (originally published in Climate Progress) extends to energy opportunities well outside the residential sphere, it's the latest example an overstatement of the so-called "Rebound Effect". Although there are certainly times that a portion of the…

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(This is from Robb Aldrich of Steven Winter Associates.)

It’s no secret that windows are a liability when it comes to heat loss in homes. Conductance of quality insulated, low-e windows is typically 0.30-0.35 Btu/ft²hr°F, or about R-3. If installed in a wall that performs at R-20, heat lost through windows is 6-7 times higher (per unit area) than heat loss through the rest of the wall.…

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There is a hot and heavy dialogue taking place in an online group that I belong to, made up mostly of people who are in the business of auditing homes and then making homes more energy efficient, healthy, and comfortable. The main gist of the discussion is, Do we rely on the government to encourage people to make their homes more efficient, or is it up to the market? Does this sound familiar? Tune into any election debate in the…

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Two weeks ago I was in Charleston, South Carolina for a meeting of the National Association of State Community Services Programs (NASCSP). Last week I stopped by West Coast Green taking place at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. NASCSP is a group of state managers for the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) for low-income families. West Coast Green is an interactive conference focusing on innovation for the built environment. From crawlspaces to sheep’s wool… Continue

Welcome to Home Energy Pros – the unique digital community by and for those who work in the home energy performance arena.



It is no secret that we are on the cusp of a major transformation in how energy efficiency is deployed in the housing sector. After all, the U.S. President even went on television in a major… Continue