Energy Efficiency

For decades, the “perfect wall” has been recognized as an optimal path to robust, high-performance, moisture managed, and energy-efficient walls.

Most of my work is in exterior remediation, both as a builder specializing in exterior work and (more and more these days) as a building consultant inspecting and advising owners and builders when moisture problems arise.

The through-wall flashing at the head and sill must be planned before the masons are even hired, and we have to be sure the masons follow our plans closely because getting the details wrong is a sure-fire path to water problems.

As Christine Williamson explains in a recent IG post, lots of builders confuse the cladding of a building with the building's water control layer, and, she surmises, this is the reason for a very common omission: Not installing through-wall flashing, the (usually) L-shaped piece of metal above an opening or at the base of a wall.

Sixteen States' Attorneys General signed on to a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy outlining the deadlines it has failed to comply with regarding energy efficiency standard review mandated by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.

As much as a third of a home’s heating and cooling bills can be traced to air infiltration and exfiltration. So tightening up a house is an important step in energy efficiency.

ASHRAE published two articles in the September 2020 issue of ASHRAE Journal that provide further insight into the importance of healthy buildings in the context of COVID-19.

As we recently wrote on the ACEEE blog, the COVID-19 crisis has exposed the intertwined relationships among housing, energy, and health​, and has underscored how ​disparate living conditions can adversely affect communities of color.

The home building industry is working to quantify the value that healthier, high-performance residential buildings can bring to occupants.

Climate change is affecting life throughout Chicagoland and around the world.