Spotlight Article:
Vermiculite Attic Insulation, or What's in Your Attic?
Oh, the irony. Zonolite Attic Insulation (ZAI), was once marketed as a perfectly safe, inexpensive, do-it-yourself attic insulation for home improvement projects. Today, the presence of ZAI represents an expensive professional abatement job for a ...
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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]
Drawbacks Of Powered Attic Ventilators
Powered attic ventilators, already suspected of using more energy than they save, can also create excess moisture, structural problems, discomfort, and combustion safety problems for home occupants, according to a recent study. [continue reading]
Researchers Approach Builders on Duct Location
It is common practice in California to put ducts outside the conditioned space, in attics and crawlspaces. These duct systems are typically 50%-70% efficient due mostly to air leakage and heat transfer losses, while sealed conditioned-space duct installations have efficiencies over 90%. O [continue reading]
Assessing The Integrity Of Electrical Wiring
Dense-pack cellulose insulation is a very useful and cost-effective technique for lowering both conductive and convective heat losses in a variety of housing types. [continue reading]
Beauty and the Beast Upstairs
The same features that are often added to the top story of homes to give them distinctive architectural beauty can also make them rather beastly to heat or retrofit. [continue reading]
Ventilating Attics to Minimize Icings at Eaves
Icicles and ice dams form at the eaves of some roofs in cold regions. Water that ponds behind ice dams may leak into the building since most steep roofs are configured to shed water, not hold back standing water. [continue reading]
Saving Energy with Reflective Roof Coatings
Architects have traditionally used light surface colors to cool off buildings in hot climates, but until recently there was little research on the measured cooling-energy savings of reflective roofs. [continue reading]
Sizing Up Skylights
Skylights, like windows, are distinctive features of homes that greatly influence their aesthetics. [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.
