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The Green Building Inspector Green Living and Construction

English - Inspector, Green, Building
http://www.greenbuildinginspector.com
The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

Confusion & Complexity – Can Green Building Programs Be Simplified?

If you've ever had to dive into the details of the green building and energy efficiency programs for homes, you've experienced the operational definition of the word 'complexity,' along with a bit of 'confusion,' too, I'm sure. I know I have. Unfortunately, the programs all just keep going further a
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

Oversized AC, Screwed-up Manual J, ENERGY STAR HVAC Tirade!

I was checking some REM/Rate files for our HERS raters yesterday, mostly submitted forENERGY STAR homes. I've come to expectManual J heating and cooling load calculations submitted along with the files to be less than perfect. Mostly, I accept them because they're close enough. Yesterday, though, I
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

Energy efficiency absorbs water

Efforts have been underway for decades to conserve both energy and water, but never in concert. This is unfortunate because energy uses a lot of water and water uses a lot of energy. Two leading conservation organizations have set out to bring the efforts together. The American Council for an Energy
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

3 Reasons Your Crawl Space Has High Humidity & Grows Stuff

Do you have floor joists in your crawl space that look like the one to the left? In case you can't tell how bad it really is, just click on it to see a bigger version. When you do, you'll notice the 'furries,' as one of my friend called the microbial infestation growing on that wood. What's going on
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

Energy Efficiency and the Annoying Guy Next Door

The Environmental Protection Agency calls big-backyard neighborhoods like mine “automobile dependent locations” and contrasts them with “transit-oriented” neighborhoods, places where you can hop a bus or easily walk to regular destinations. The agency recently looked at which kind of neighborhood us
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

How to Choose a Company to Do a Home Energy Audit

My two sisters-in-law have been in town the past few days, and one of them needs to get an energy audit for the home she and her husband recently bought in Seattle. I gave her a recommendation for a company to do the audit (from a couple of friends who used to live there), and now she's asking the v
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

News Flash: Americans Use Less Energy When It Costs More

I wrote about energy conservation versus energy efficiency last year and showed how things had stayed pretty level over the past three decades as we've spent our efficiency dividend on bigger houses and more electronics. Still, I had trouble believing we were actually using less energy per person th
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

Energy efficiency and Weight Watchers

We’ve been hearing for years that the energy efficiency industry needs to find its equivalent to the cell phone. These days industry folks refer to it as the ‘killer app,” the revolutionary product or service that consumers can’t resist. But lately, partly because I’m dieting, I’ve been thinking wha
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

Combustion Safety Rule #1: Remove Exhaust Gases from House

So, I was out on a field test with a new HERSrater the other day, and we took a look up in the attic. The scuttle hole is right next to the closet where the natural gas water heater lives, and the flue comes up into the attic right there where we poked our heads up. The photo at left shows the flue
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The Green Building Inspector · 1Y ago

No More “Damn Architects!” – The Case for Integrated Design

The house was at one end of a mountain valley in the foothills of Northern Colroado, and at the other end of the valley was Horsetooth Mountain. During the Summer, they could watch the afternoon storms roll across the valley, and would often see heards of elk and deer roaming. The wildlife would pra
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