Featured Blog Posts (386)

President and founder of Chicago-based Weiss Building & Development, Brandon Weiss is a third-generation builder who credits time spent in Europe to his sustainable approach to life.

While he’s built more than 90 high-performing homes since he started his company in 2005, it wasn’t until recently that he started work on his own family home.…

LBNL is conducting a study to explore the efficiency of hot water distribution systems in California residences. You’ve likely had the experience of waiting for shower water to get hot? Until the shower reaches a comfortable temperature, the water goes down the drain.  Both water and energy could be saved! Information about hot water and natural gas use in homes will…

“It’s amazing. Every year, we find somebody who comes up with a way of going around the second law (of Thermodynamics) and somehow convinces people who are very smart that it will work.”      MIT lecture on  Thermodynamics and & Kinetics, Spring 2008

Since the 1980s, hot water condensing boilers (CB) have…

It says something that Ernest Moniz chose to deliver his first public talk as US energy secretary to an energy efficiency crowd.

His appearance last week at EE Global in Washington, D.C. was a surprise of sorts. And the timing was significant. Moniz had only been confirmed as energy secretary three hours before taking the podium at the Alliance to Save Energy’s annual conference.

Why did he make the stop?

Probably not because of the size of the crowd. About 550 people…

Changing one’s daily routine and making big decisions about money is hard. When a home performance contractor asks a customer to consider an audit, they are asking a lot. Besides the cost of the audit and any retrofit measures the homeowner chooses to pay for, which is probably the biggest challenge, there is also the inconvenience. The audit and retrofit may require the homeowner to take time off from work. Having workers climb in and out of the attic, under the crawlspace, and drill holes…

  The easiest way to show a homeowner how their investment in high-efficient equipment will help their wallet is to use the "Simple Payback" Calculation.  This 'tried and true' sales tactic will quickly explain how many years before the additional investment to upgrade is paid off.  Of course, there are many features that a high-efficient system provides, like superior levels of comfort, wether it be climate control or just condenser noise just outside their children's bedroom.  These…

This is the latest from Foskey Road News, a business blog that is strictly consumer focused.

by Edward Foskey

Based on the life expectancy of the heat pump that came with my house when I bought it, I know that I am already living on borrowed time. I just recently had a minor repair and the semi-annual check-up. My plans are to start preparing to replace it by next spring.

I know…

We don't see a lot of bi-partisan bills in Congress these days. Here's one focusing on home energy-efficiency from a WV-R and a VT-D, both on the energy committee, the HOMES Act, HR 2128 (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.113hr2128) introduced yesterday.  Now, I'm not holding my breathe on passage, but I take it as a good sign that energy-efficiency is part of the…

The late poet and political activist Muriel Rukeyser famously said, The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms. It’s not just words that make up stories. A scientific equation is a story, and so is getting up from my seat and stretching—it’s the story of back care for an editor. We can tell a story with the expression on our faces. What does it tell you when a loved one rolls her eyes at you, or blows you a kiss? How do you feel when a stranger winks at you? Flips you the bird? That last…

Acronyms and initials (let's call that AI,^† for short, not to be confused with the other AI, which stands for artificial intelligence, or AIA, which stands for…

His economic truth about homeownership:

By contrast, real home prices should decline with time, except to the extent that households shell out some money and plow back some of their incomes into maintenance and improvements, because homes wear out and go out of style.

"Here is a harsh truth about homeownership: Over the long haul, it’s hard for homes to compete with the stock market in real…

Reposted from i.e., the Center for Energy and Environment's Innovation Exchange blog -- http://mncee.org/Innovation-Exchange/ie/

Of course, behaviorism works. So does torture. Give me…

We use drainage gaps or planes in wall systems to stop water from entering the building shell and causing deterioration or mould. This air gap does two things if wide enough; it prevents water’s surface tension from staying or even climbing up the wall and the gap also disperses the forces of wind driven rain or solar vapour drive. Let’s look at…

Dave Robinson, a principal of GreenEarthEquities, is a man in this industry that needs little introduction. If you didn’t see him at last year’s ACI event accepting the Tony Woods Award, you may have seen him teaching a class, serving as the former president of the California Building Performance Association, or performing deep energy retrofits on…

Solar Energy + Energy Efficiency Services – to DO or NOT to DO – is no more a Shakespearean dilemma!

The SMB solar installer finds himself in a challenging spot today

• Profitability hurts, some operators are working on a…

Much has been written in recent times on consumer attitudes towards investing in energy efficiency retrofits, a recent GTM article http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Can-Home-Energy-Efficiency-Gain-Traction?utm_source=SmartGrid&utm_medium=Headline&utm_campaign=GTMDaily does hit the nail on the…

Before drywall was installed, I tested the infiltration (air leakage) at the Proud Green Home (PGH) at Serenbe,…

CEE understands that efficient technologies alone will not save energy. Consumer behavior plays a role in energy consumption, so our program design incorporates use strategies from behavioral psychology. We also like to use social media and other communication channels to educate about energy! In this post, Minnesota Energy Challenge Coordinator …

On two separate Quality Assurance site visits in the past two weeks I've detected elevated levels of Carbon Monoxide (CO) coming from attached garages. I was a bit surprised at this since neither garage contained a car - let alone any active source of combustion. So I did some digging and came up with this great resource from Iowa State on the topic. From my reading of…

Ok, I have had a couple programmable thermostats in the past... But, once again about 11 months ago I was doing my weekly (sometimes daily) stroll through the neighborhood 'big-box' home improvement store and back in the back past the garden section there is this little…