Leslie Jackson is associate editor for Home Energy.
Advancing Home Performance House By House
A small home performance company is growing by leaps and bounds by providing something of value to all it's customers - including an education in home performance. [continue reading]
Move Over, Jetsons
Prefab, manufactured, modular homes. What do these words make you think of? Ultramodern Buckminster Fuller spaceship like dwelling solutions for ultramodern people, and shiny, hard surfaces—a far cry from living in cooperation with ... [continue reading]
Serious Materials Rocks
Gypsum. It’s not just for Twinkies. The mineral, a semi hydrous form of calcium sulfate, with many uses from Plaster of Paris to Chinese Medicine and even Twinkies, is mined all over the ... [continue reading]
Korean Efficiency
Energy efficiency measures in Korea are underway that are at the forefront of market transformation and energy savings. One, a mandate to attach a warning label to any new consumer electronics products that don’... [continue reading]
Hummingbird House: Design for Everyone
This is an excerpt from a conversation I had with Larry Weingarten, a water heater expert and Renaissance tinkerer, at the 2009 ACEEE Hot Water Conference last June 2009. [continue reading]
Hummingbird House: Design for Everyone Part II
This is the second part of a conversation with Leslie Jackson, Associate Editor, and Larry Weingarten, a water heater expert and Renaissance guy. His solar-powered structural insulated panels (SIPs) house combines ordinary materials with extraordinary design. [continue reading]
Hummingbird House: Design for Everyone Part III
This is the third part of a conversation that I had with Larry Weingarten, a water heater expert and Renaissance guy. His solar-powered structural insulated panels (SIPs) house combines ordinary materials with extraordinary design. [continue reading]
What We Can Learn from Haiti
The most damaging effect of the earthquake in Haiti was not the ground movement itself, but that buildings collapsed. The rebuilding has lessons for us all. [continue reading]
Dirt's Illuminati
Leslie Jackson
The 2009 Natural Building Colloquium was last month in Southern Oregon. We shared tricks-of-the-trade such as lime and earthen plastering techniques, the latest in like straw bale and cob, housing the poor, emergency relief housing, teaching, etc. [continue reading]
Concrete Home: To Insulate or Outsulate?
Leslie Jackson
Yesterday, we got a letter from Martha: "We are in Texas. We have an all concrete home made of blocks and concrete roof. How can we insulate it? The home is about 2000 sq ft. And we cannot get it warm or cool enough with a new 5-ton central AC unit. Please help. [continue reading]
Interview: Living in Place with Larry Taff
Leslie Jackson
Larry Taff heads TZ of Madison, Inc., a long-time family business that performs remodels on homes with a much needed twist. His excellent designs and up-to-date knowledge of residential energy efficiency help aging people whose requirements are changing stay in their homes longer. TZ of Madison won also won the NARI of Madison Contractor of the Year Award for the Universal Design category for the 2nd year in a row. Larry will be speaking at ... [continue reading]
Response, Recovery, Rebuild
Leslie Jackson
The three R's after any disaster are: Response, Recovery & Rebuild. Response is the first few days, as rescue workers try their best and aid begins arriving. Recovery is the next few weeks, as aid gets out into the field, roads get cleared, water and electricity is restored, sewers are fixed, and temporary accommodation built. But the biggest challenge is the long rebuild which can take months and years, and usually takes place when the world's ... [continue reading]
Green Building: Surprising Lessons Learned
Leslie Jackson
The nice thing about TED talks is that they are efficiently presented, compressing information into a few stimulating moments. [continue reading]
2010 Home Energy Guide to Training Programs Online
Leslie Jackson
Home Energy magazine’s Annual Training Guide for Home Performance Professionals--published in past years in print and as a downloadable PDF on our Web site--is now perpetual. And searchable. Every two years, we have published a resource of training programs in the United States and Canada, connecting trainers to students. Last year, the Guide went from a list with a short description of each trainer organization and its offerings, to a grid, showing the ... [continue reading]
Do You Offer Weatherization Training?
Leslie Jackson
The DOE recently released a this 4-minute video about the training offerings of The Weatherization Training Program at Pennsylvania College in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. [continue reading]
What is Permaculture?
Leslie Jackson
Wikipedia’s definition of permaculture works. It’s a fancy word to describe biology, but complex enough that there are certification systems for it all over the world, workshops, and events such as the Northwest Permaculture Convergence, which was in Seattle Washington over the weekend of September 15 and 16. Three hundred people gathered, twice as many as there were at the same conference the year before. [continue reading]
