Spotlight Article:
Trailer Treasure—Affordable Housing, Green Living, Community, Income in an Unlikely Place
The American dream of homeownership for all is not particularly healthy these days. Housing prices in some areas have already returned to pre-Great Recession (2006) levels. According to the Trulia real estate website, the median price ...
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Passive Solar Success Set in Concrete
Passive solar design combined with thermal mass construction is a proven technique for energy and cost efficiency. At Tierra Concrete Homes, we use this technique in our passive solar concrete homes. [continue reading]
Wall R-Values that Tell It Like It Is
Several new wall systems are gaining popularity, due to increasing interest in energy efficiency, alternatives to dimensional wood framing, and building sustainable structures. [continue reading]
Heat Pumps and Manufactured Homes: Making the Marriage Work
In my job as the factory-built home specialist for North Carolina's Alternative Energy Corporation (AEC), I have been crawling under, in, and around manufactured homes for the last dozen years, looking for causes of, and solutions to, building energy problems. [continue reading]
Advanced Houses: The Canadian Experience
The goal of Canada's Advanced Houses program was to build houses that are far more energy efficient, environmentally benign, and healthy for occupants than typical Canadian houses. [continue reading]
New Pioneering in Straw Bale Building
No, they're not living in haylofts. The horses don't knock the houses down for bedding. And the big bad wolf doesn't chase the residents off in search of bricks and mortar. [continue reading]
A Plan to Stop Fluffing and Cheating in Attic Insulation
In the mid-1980s, a Georgia utility became concerned about the large number of attic insulation jobs being done for its energy-efficient home construction program that failed to meet the program's standards. [continue reading]
Building the Suncube
Armed with a home equity loan, a contractor's license, and some knowledge of energy-efficient technologies, I built an affordable, passive-solar house in Chico, California. [continue reading]
Off-Grid in a Cold City: The Alberta Sustainable Home
The Alberta Sustainable Home is a new suburban three-bedroom house and office that will soon be independent of the sewer, electric, and water systems. [continue reading]
Building Performance Journal Editors
Our Blog Has Moved
Thanks for your interest in contributing a blog to the Building Performance Journal (formerly Home Energy magazine). We’re ...
Jim Gunshinan
Is Energy Efficiency an American Value?
Energy efficiency is good for the economy, good for families, good for workers, and good for the environment.
