Spotlight Article:
A New Guide for Solar Plan Reviewers, Code Inspectors, and Installers
When an industry grows as fast as solar, it can be challenging for consumers, contractors, and code officials to be in lockstep on the path to a successful installation—from plan review to inspection ...
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Solar Tool Hits Sweet Spot
The SunEye, a solar-access and shade analysis tool from Solmetric, is really easy to use. It is so simple that you don’t even have to adjust the compass for magnetic north, as you ... [continue reading]
Burning Daylight
Renewable Technologies, Incorporated, (RTI) sells, well, renewable technologies, but in the process it offers a service that many of its competitors haven’t yet thought to offer—energy auditing. Darryl Conklin, who founded ... [continue reading]
Solar Empowerment
Gary Gerber, CEO and founder of Sun Light and Power in Berkeley, California, has been working in the renewable energy field for 30 years. He successfully steered his solar design and installation company through the lean ... [continue reading]
Designing for Solar
Deciding where to put a PV system on a roof can be a struggle, especially if the best place for the system is unavailable for some reason. That’s when an architect or designer ... [continue reading]
Roof-Mounted PV Systems
One of the most important things you can do when designing and installing a PV system is to get to know the customer’s roof. While there are many facets to designing and installing ... [continue reading]
Maximizing the Benefits of Zero-Energy Homes
There is an emerging trend in energy programs for new homes to shift from a focus on the use of individual high-performance components to a focus on overall home performance. Key examples of this trend ... [continue reading]
Solar-Design Tools for Green Building
Thousands of residential solar buildings, including many that use multiple solar technologies, have been built in the United States since the 1940s. Today, residential solar-energy applications tend to favor PV electric systems, passive-solar or climate-responsive ... [continue reading]
Energy Efficiency and Solar Electricity Go Hand in Hand
While zero-energy homes (ZEHs) are still more of a goal than a reality, near-zero-energy homes—those that produce as much electricity, but not quite as much total energy, as the residents consume—are ... [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.
