Whether you think about it much or not, everybody seems to at least have a vague idea that their home could be more energy efficient. You probably think about it most often around the time your energy bills show up each month or when you hear about energy prices continuing to rise. Figuring out what to do to improve efficiency can be complicated, so it’s often just put off until later. As a company that specializes in energy efficiency we can help! (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘home performance’
An Intro To The ECO Home
Thursday, November 17th, 2011It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010A Twisted (and Fictional) Building Science Tale for Halloween
I had been summoned to an investigation on the outskirts of town. The house was a bit hard to find with the approaching dusk and gathering dark clouds – it was my last Home Performance Analysis gig of the day. As I walked up the stone steps, the rain sprayed wet bullets at my neck.
“Gotta remember to look for moisture problems,” I muttered to myself, drawing my coat tight around me. (more…)
Moisture and Your Home
Thursday, October 14th, 2010The third in a three-part series about Air, Heat & Moisture.
Over the last few weeks, Bill Klotz and Allison Arpin have talked about the various ways air and heat can get into or out of a house — and what the negative effects can be. In the final installment of our 3-part series, I’m going to talk about moisture issues.
Uncontrolled moisture is the undisputed leading cause of (more…)
The Impact of Heat Sneaking In or Out of Your Home
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010The second in a three-part series about Air, Heat & Moisture.
Last week, Bill Klotz talked about the various ways air can get into or out of a house and what the negative effects can be. Today, I’m tackling the same type of issues related to heat. The negative effects are pretty obvious to most people — you don’t want excess heat getting into your house in the summer or escaping in the winter. But how it gets in and out is a little more complicated. (more…)
Southern Energy Management Launches New Home Performance Services in the Triangle
Friday, September 24th, 2010
SEM has been doing building performance testing and improvements for commercial clients for a while — but now we’re offering that same type of service to homeowners with our new Home Performance Services program. It goes beyond the traditional energy audit that a lot of people think of, and gives people a top-to-bottom list of things that can help improve the health, comfort and energy efficiency of their homes. (more…)
Top 5 Ways to Improve Your Home’s Efficiency & Comfort
Thursday, September 16th, 2010
When it comes to improving the comfort, health and energy efficiency of any home, there are a lot of routes people can take. I was asked to write a blog post laying out the “Top 5″ home performance improvements we find in our daily lives here at SEM, and at first glance it seemed like culling all those options down to five would be tough.
Then it struck me: this might be a little easier if I looked at my own home. I quickly realized there were five things that I did immediately after buying my house earlier this year, and if they were important for me, then they’ll probably apply to many other homes, too.
So without further ado, here is the “Allison Arpin Top 5 Home Performance Improvements List:”
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An Introduction to the Blower Door Test
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
At one time or another, most homeowners have probably experienced a hot bonus room, a moisture problem, or air leaking in (or out) near doors and windows. These are some of the issues I’m looking for when I go into a home to figure out the best ways to improve its comfort and energy efficiency. There are a lot of things I take into account and some useful gadgets at my disposal. The one tool in my bag of tricks that is both indispensable and raises the most eyebrows from homeowners is the blower door test. Simply put, a blower door measures the total amount of air leaking into or out of any house (or commercial building), and it is often the most important piece of equipment that we use.
Since we get so many questions about it every time we take it out of the bag, we thought we’d offer a quick overview and video demonstration here on our blog for anyone interested. (more…)
