Archive of posts filed under the Energy Efficiency category.
Sealing The Basement
Sealing a crawl space prevents moisture getting into the house from the ground. It is also a very effective way to reduce air infiltration, particularly around the rim joists and seams of the stem walls. Tom’s crew has laid polyurethane liners down on the basement ground and up the stem walls. While 6-mil to 10-mil […]
How To Properly Size A Furnace For Your Home
Winter is around the corner. If you are planning to replace your old furnace make sure you size it correctly. A right size furnace can save you money and energy to run the system. The furnace also lasts longer. Many HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) contractors use conventional rule of thumb to size furnaces and […]
A Day At The Green Festival
This 13th annual Green Festival in San Francisco in early November had over 300 businesses and organizations under one roof displaying their sustainable products and services. It’s like a marketplace for you with all sustainable vendors. A few products/services that suit a green home particularly well. Healthy Building Science was demonstrating eletromagnetic signals caused by […]
Selecting The Heating And Cooling System
The HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Condition) load calculations showed that we can take some innovative approach to heating this house. First, the heating requirement of 25,000 BTU makes any conventional gas or oil fired furnace oversized. Gas/oil fired furnace typically comes with a minimum of 40,000 BTU. Ductless minisplit heat pumps are great as they […]
Sizing the Heating and Cooling System
With the energy efficiency measures we are taking: air sealing, more insulation, triple-pane windows, etc, we know that the HVAC (heating ventilation air condition) requirement will be much lower than most houses in the neighborhood. Normally a detailed calculation using the ACCA Manual J (Heating and Cooling requirement calculation) and Manual D (duct size calculation) […]
Attic, Basement and Porch Demolition
More pictures about demolition of attic, basement and porch. Coming next: Sizing the Heating and Cooling System See also: Partnering With Green Hearted Companies and the entire From Foreclosure To Green Home series. This forum provides you with resources about home renovation, improvement, makeover and repair topics such as air condition, cabinet replacement, countertop selection, […]
First Floor and Second Floor Demolition
Tom has begun taking interior walls down and getting ready for air sealing, insulation and relocation of rooms, stairways and bathrooms. These pictures give some perspective of what is happening. Coming next: Attic Demolition See also: Partnering With Green Hearted Companies and the entire From Foreclosure To Green Home series. This forum provides you with […]
Updated Design
We spent quite a bit of time discussing how to redesign the first floor. The objective is to create more useful space, a bigger master bedroom and a generally more modern open look. Here is what we came up with. Move the staircase going to the basement to the NW corner of the house, below […]