One of 8 homes on Merryspring’s annual Kitchen Tour boasts more than an enlarged, custom kitchen. The 1880s farmhouse got an energy efficiency upgrade from Evergreen this year, including basement encapsulation and attic insulation that made the home more comfortable and affordable.
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When it comes to insulation, we know what we’re talking about. We know why cellulose outperforms fiberglass, and why the spray foam we recommend for your basement doesn’t make sense in your attic. We understand the importance of air sealing first to ensure that insulation performs its best.But why does insulation matter anyway? Put simply, insulation is the key to creating a comfortable home and preventing energy waste. This graphic explains what would happen in an uninsulated home:
For more than twenty years, Energy Star labels have helped us identify the most energy efficient appliances and products on the market. In that time, families and businesses have realized an estimated savings of more than $230 billion on utility bills and prevented more than 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The program is definitely working.
One of the occupational hazards of building-science-geekery is the professional crush.
While “it could be worse” is hardly a ringing endorsement of energy efficiency across the U.S. economy, it, well, could be worse. ACEEE’s first annual assessment of 15 national indicators showed that we’re moving – slowly and unsteadily – down the right path.
Energy efficiency has been all over the news lately, but among the headlines, this line made us sit up and take notice:“Energy efficiency investments can have returns so handsome they will rival those of successful criminal enterprises.”Wait…WHAT did he just say??
President Barack Obama makes an important address on climate change this afternoon, following up on the environmental emphasis of his second inaugural address. In a video announcement Saturday, Obama called global climate change “a serious challenge, but it’s one uniquely suited to America’s strengths.”
Thanks to a Next Step Maine Scholarship from the Maine Development Foundation, Energy Advisor Ham Niles will study advanced thermography at the Infrared Training Center in Boston in July. Ham received his scholarship at a cermony at the State House, left.
For some, Father’s Day means a new tie and a barbeque on the back deck. For Nate Spectre, his son Peter, and more than 2000 other cyclists, it means the Trek Across Maine.
Sometimes building science just isn’t fair. It doesn’t care how much insulation you buy, or even how hard you work installing it. Nooooo, the laws of physics insist that your house is a system, and that insulation can only do its job when it goes hand in hand with air sealing.
