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While working on my upcoming article about California's owner-builder movement and its connection to today's tiny homes, I reconnected with Peter Pfeiffer, founding principal at Barley Pfeiffer Architecture in Austin, Texas. Pfeiffer recently used a tiny house as the basis of an educational project for students in a construction class at Austin Community College. The goal of the project was to teach best practices in high performance building science, including energy-efficient residential construction, and building ... [continue reading]
Although the concept of geothermal energy is one that's been around since Ancient Romans were snap-whipping their buddies with towels while bathing in hot springs, it can still be unfamiliar to some people. That being said the idea of geothermal heating is not all too hard to comprehend – the Earth's core maintains a constant temperature year round and thus we can funnel that heat to warm our houses instead of a traditional furnace. [continue reading]
Maureen Mahle is an engineer and specialist in high performance homes. As the vice president and director of Steven Winter Associates’ Sustainable Housing Services, Mahle provides expert sustainable design, specification, and construction consulting for a variety of project types including community developments, private residences, mixed-use, and multifamily buildings. [continue reading]
As the summer heat sets in, residential air conditioning load delivers its annual punch to the power grid. Engaging customers in active energy management has long been an elusive goal of most utilities. Traditional utility messaging on conservation only goes so far in reducing peak load. Some consumers take these messages to heart, while others disregard them. [continue reading]
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has created a first-of-its-kind energy-efficient housing competition for college and university students. The Tiny House Competition—developed by SMUD’s Energy & Technology Center and Community Solar program—includes twelve student teams from throughout California. The teams will design and build their own tiny houses and bring them to Sacramento State next fall for the competition. The winners will receive trophies and monetary awards. [continue reading]
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou [continue reading]
At the ACI National Conference this year, I was remiss that there was no official presence of Women in Home Performance. What I found encouraging was that people noticed and asked for more. So, with the gracious assistance of long time supporter Macie Melendez of Home Energy magazine, we’re back! Macie and I will be interviewing women in the industry in this blog series, The Real Women of Home Performance. Our hope is ... [continue reading]
In recent years, DOE has developed the DOE Guidelines for Building Science Education - a set of job-specific checklists intended to be used by partnering training organizations, universities and certification bodies to self–certify that their programs include these important aspects of building science in their curriculum. Partners of DOE’s Guidelines for Building Science Education will be highlighted on related websites and potentially receive recognition from DOE for their efforts in this ... [continue reading]
The poet Muriel Rukeyser once said something like this: The universe is not made of atoms; it’s made of stories. I think that conferences are made of stories too, like the one I’m at this week, the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition (NEUAC) Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. [continue reading]
For those not familiar with “Ching books”, they’re essentially the gold standard for visual architecture reference and aid in the design process. Architect Francis D.K. Ching’s series of textbook-size volumes go through conceptual to intimate detail of design and construction for both novice and professionals alike. They’re commonly noted as the best and easiest-to-understand references for design professionals and builders the world over. It would be ... [continue reading]
