Just found a whole bunch of UK studies of hot water – Yay! Here’s one on the cost-benefit of installing thermostatic mixing valves: “It is very likely that installing TMVs as standard in social housing in new buildings and major refurbishments accompanied by educational information represents value for money.” Here’s a powerpoint from the American Burn Association discussing scald prevention: […]
All posts tagged Technical
Frameworks for Improving Building Performance
I have two mental models for understanding and improving building performance. The first model I’ll call “Everything is Sort of Bad”. This model says that a building is pretty bad – but not horrible – pretty much everywhere and in most of the building systems (thermal boundary, pressure boundary, ducts, water-resistive barrier, etc). The second model I’ll call “Everything is […]
Category Energy Efficiency, News
Tags Air Sealing, Efficiency, Insulation, Technical
Blower Door Guided Air-sealing isn’t Real
I really like blower doors.There are a lot of building diagnostic tools that most people have probably never heard of that I like. Duct-blasters and flow plates to name a couple of more. For readers who are interested in conserving energy who haven’t heard of a blower door, check out Martin Holladay’s article on blower doors here. Blower doors are […]
Category Energy Efficiency, News
Tags Air Sealing, Comfort, Efficiency, Technical
Look Ma, No Replacement Windows!
Here are the blower door results from one of the NJ Home Performance with Energy Star jobs we did this week. In most houses we anticipate 30%-40% leakage reductions, which is generally considered pretty good. But 55% leakage reduction is pretty awesome! I’ll try to find time over the weekend to elaborate on our evolving techniques for sealing buildings. Here’s […]
