Last night I attended Manual S training at Eastern Heating Cooling Council

Ed Janowiak is a great instructor and all-around-good-guy. I think that everyone working on buildings would benefit a lot from the heat load class (Manual J). Here's a list of all the EHCC classes. Go take some!http://www.eh-cc.org/courseofferings.php HVAC Classes New Jersey | Eastern Heating Cooling Council HVAC classes that meet NATE continuing education requirements are available through the Eastern Heating […]

Category News
Tags

Weird

Full pdf at link. Journal of School Psychology | Vol 50, Iss 1, Pgs 1-148, (February, 2012) | ScienceDirect.com The online version of Journal of School Psychology at ScienceDirect.com, the world’s leading platform for high quality peer-reviewed full-text journals. View this post on Google+ Post imported by Google+Blog for WordPress.

Category News
Tags

Courtesy of the BPS blog

Looks like an interesting article but this construction worker isn't about to drop >$30 to read beyond the abstract. "We argue that scientific thinking, although fallible, is ultimately school psychologists' best safeguard against a host of errors in thinking." I wonder if the authors realized they could have substituted pretty much anything for school psychologists. I'd also be curious to […]

Category News
Tags

From a job today

Removing an installation that's about a decade old. A lot of diy window installations would be better if you could turn them upside down. Probably heard the expression a few thousand times "think like a drop of water". We've found remarkably little damage to the inside (so far), but this was on a somewhat sheltered exposure. We'll see what tomorrow […]

Category News
Tags

I've been updating some of our blower door leakage testing #'s on projects…

I've been updating some of our blower door leakage testing #'s on projects from the past couple of years. Might tweak this a bit, as a couple of the worst records below are for connected townhouses which really skew things down. The bottom line is that if you're living in a single family home in NJ, you should expect pretty […]

Category News
Tags

More info on Alex Wilson's research on the impact of foam

Prior to this a lot of people (including myself) felt that adding any insulation anywhere on a building was a net environmental benefit. I.e. that the energy savings to the building was so great that it made the enviro impact of the foam trivial. Sorry planet! Calculating the Global Warming Impact of Insulation Subtitle: If you insulate with certain types […]

Category News
Tags

Last one for the night

Maria recently took this shot of this lovely bathroom we completed in the spring. That's right, sometimes people pay us to do something other than crawl around attics. Or at least they pay Abel, Steve and June. View this post on Google+ Post imported by Google+Blog for WordPress.

Category News
Tags

Apparently we recently completed the biggest shell upgrade in the NJ Home Performance…

Apparently we recently completed the biggest shell upgrade in the NJ Home Performance with Energy Star program. Installed around 80 sheets of Thermax. While I'm sure Dow loves us, I have mixed feelings about putting totally impermeable stuff on below-grade walls. AFAIK, Thermax is the only rigid foam that can be left exposed in virtually any part of a home […]

Category News
Tags

Quick and dirty work shot from a job today

This is pretty much the detail we've settled on for air-sealing at the eaves. We chop down an accuvent baffle, extend it past the exterior wall plate, then seal the wall plate to the baffle with single part foam. This detail could probably be used on >80% of US houses. The only unfortunate bit is that the vertical height at […]

Category News
Tags

Awesome Robert Cialdini interview about reducing energy consumption using behavioral…

Awesome Robert Cialdini interview about reducing energy consumption using behavioral change. I think our program (NJHPwES) is pretty good. But unfortunately it neglects the behavioral side. Cialdini argues that this is the most cost-effective way to reduce energy consumption. Never mind what people believe — how can we change what they do? A chat with Robert Cialdini When it comes […]

Category News
Tags