All Blog Posts Tagged 'Energy' (34)

So the price of gas is hovering near $4.00 a gallon again.  Have you noticed a change in your driving habits?  More people are choosing to stay home over driving long distances for vacation.  They’re also combining trips to multiple locations to get more things done all at once and if they forget to stop at one,…

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At a job site meeting this past week, our newest design clients handed Abe a small pile of dog-eared, marked-up “inspiration” magazines. They contained pictures and ideas collected by the homeowners, and demonstrated their affection for clean lines, neutral colors, and a judicious use of space. …

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This past April 22nd was Earth Day 2011, and it's official theme was A Billion Acts of Green. The basic idea is that, if at least a billion of us each pledged to perform some relatively simple “act of green”, we’d all be that much closer to a greener, more sustainable world. Here are examples of three simple, relatively low cost (lightweight, if you…

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My recent visit to Savannah for the USGBC's green product expo charged up my historic preservation bug and got me to thinking about how to apply building science to historic buildings.

Most of us that have ever lived in, owned, or even just visited a historic home…

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I interviewed architect Chris Laumer-Giddens, of Energy Vanguard, on the company's new integrated design-build / home-performance model last week. I'm reposting the interview here, with Chris's permission. -- Leah Thayer, daily5Remodel…

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OK, I'm back from getting the dimensions of Doe's house, enter all the information into EnergyPro, and do an initial calculation. It looks like the house as it is has a HERS of 147, which means that the model predicts that it will use about one and a half times as much energy as a 'reference home', which is this exact same home if it was built to today's energy code requirements and has by definition a HERS of 100. 147 is not too bad but way above what we want. Let's see if we can get it below… Continue

We all go through transitions in our lives.  One of the biggest is choosing or changing a profession.  As I mentioned in previous entries, my background for the previous 9 years was doing class action and warranty inspections on residential building products.  This meant I became keenly…

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Building Efficiency Resources is offering Energy Star v3 training online and in 2-hour sessions that are presented outside regular working hours. This approach saves travel expenses, preserves your work day, and allows you to absorb the material in manageable segments.…

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A buddy of mine, Dennis, that’s an exterminator called me the other day while I was standing in Home Depot.  “Jon, I’ve got a problem and I need some of your building science expertise.” The problem he was having was being caused by some granules he had put down to repel some flying squirrels.  The granules…

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Henry Gifford, a mechanical systems designer and principal at Gifford Fuel Saving, Inc. in New York City, is suing the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for millions of dollars. Gifford, in the class action suit, claims that the USGBC has committed fraud in the selling of its Leadership in Energy Efficient Design (LEED) program, and has unfairly kept work away from people like him who are not involved in the program. (Photo of Henry Gifford by Travis Roozee.)…

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Here is the audio from a radio show I did on 98.5 FM The Cat in Catskill, NY.



I appologize in advance for the horribly lo-tech slideshow!



Enjoy!



Here's Part… Continue

In a shameless bit of self-promotion, I am excited to announce that me and my colleague-on-ground, Kevin Rowell were picked up by the ASTM's "Standardization News" in an article about the potential of re-introducing the vernacular building styles into Haiti's post-disaster housing crisis.



The article, entitled "Taking the Long View in… Continue

As charging stations for electric cars become more widespread so will the use of electric vehicles. But the future is not based solely on building these charging stations for electric cars, rather on the advanced technology employed in them.

Smart charging for millions of cars

Charging stations for electric cars offer multiple charging possibilities to vehicles throughout the whole day. In many charging stations for electric cars today you simply plug in and begin to…

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