Home Energy articles from January 2004

Home Energy archives from January 2004

Lessons from Europe's canicule.(heat wave)(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... In 1995 over 500 people died during a heat wave in Chicago. For days, the temperature hovered from the 90s to the low 100s during the day and dropped only to the 80s at night, which was very unusual for Chicago. The misery was compounded in...

Blower door transportation.(energy efficient vehicles)
January 1, 2004... I work as an energy auditor at a low-income weatherization agency in the greater Seattle area. I visit homes and perform energy audits. The audit includes a thorough home inspection--including looking in the attic and crawl-spaces--a blower...

Paint and carbon monoxide.
January 1, 2004... I took a class on how to sell energy efficiency (mostly for HVAC types), and the speaker mentioned that if you have a bedroom above a garage, the garage ceiling should be painted with latex paint to prevent CO from permeating the drywall. I...

Forest fires and furnace filters.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... I read a great article from the May/June '00 issue of Home Energy, by Don Fugler, "Is It Worth Putting In a Better Furnace Filter?" (p. 37). My problem is that I am in the middle of a wildfire. The air quality is like standing in the smoke of a...

When to test for worst cases.(combustion appliance safety testing)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... In the process of doing safety testing on combustion appliances, my crew first determines what are the worst conditions the structure can be in with respect to negative pressure readings in the combustion appliance zone (CAZ). We assume that...

What were they thinking?(House Doctor)(water heater installation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Doug Carlson, weatherization coordinator at the Five County Association of Governments, Cedar City, Utah, sent me these photos of a water heater installation that a weatherization crew found in Cedar City, Utah. What I want to know is, why...

MHEA comes of age.(Software)(Manufactured Home Energy Audit)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Mobile homes represent more than 20% of all homes weatherized under the DOE Weatherization Assistance program (WAP). Thanks to DOE and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), state weatherization agencies now have an updated, expanded tool...

A little help, please?(Weatherization)
January 1, 2004... In my experience training Iowa's weatherization technical specialists and assisting a local weatherization program with problem jobs--the success of the weatherization process sometimes depends on the clients being served, and on their...

A successful 14-year experiment.(Market Transformation)(pay-as-you-go electricity)
January 1, 2004... I'am the president of a local utility, Woodstock Hydro, in Ontario, Canada, who for many years, as an expert in the electric utility business, felt that I knew what was best for the customer. When I started listening to the customer, I realized...

Recessed lighting in the limelight.(Lighting)
January 1, 2004... Recessed downlights are among the most popular installed fighting fixtures for new and remodeled homes. One study in the northeastern United States found that new homes had an average of 23 recessed cans per home. Pacific Northwest National...

Resurrecting a healthy living environment: when energy costs are a big part of a family's budget, weatherizing their home pays off noticeably.(Weatherization)
January 1, 2004... Energy efficiency isn't a feel-good proposition for our customers; for them, energy savings translate directly into an improved basic living standard. We are the Neighborhood Services Department (NSD), a comprehensive service delivery component...

Weatherization training takes off in the Southeast: to increase cooling efficiency in hot climates, trainers are taking the whole-house approach where it hasn't gone before.(Weatherization)
January 1, 2004... A new training regimen is helping Mississippi adopt a whole-house approach to weatherization. And the whole-house approach is spreading to other hot-climate states. In 1995, representatives of the hot-climate states met in Dallas with building...

Restoring indoor health, one house at a time: the Opportunity Council first does no harm, and then tackles IAQ problems.(indoor air quality)
January 1, 2004... Last winter, a couple with four small children called the Opportunity Council (OC), a tri-county, private nonprofit Community Action Agency in Bellingham, Washington, hoping to get some help with their high heating bills. They came in for an...

A rater's quest for coverage: do home energy raters need insurance? Many raters have never considered the question. They should.
January 1, 2004... As a rater, I avoided the whole question of insurance for quite a long time. In Illinois, insurance is not required by the state's home energy rating program, and one can slip-slide along without a problem. Last May, however, I was about to...

Pollution occurrence insurance: for weatherization assistance program providers, obtaining affordable coverage is unexpectedly difficult.
January 1, 2004... What is pollution occurrence insurance (POI), and why do Weatherization Assistance program (WAP) providers need to be concerned with it? This is the question on the minds of many people working in and around the WAP at the state and local...

Canada's magnificent condo: testing reveals how well this building's design and construction are withstanding the test of time--and building occupancy.
January 1, 2004... How do you know if a building that was designed to be innovative, energy efficient, and healthy is fulfilling that design? You test it after the occupants have moved in. In 1998-99, a six-story, 48-unit condominium was designed and built to...

Condensation and mold: winter case studies.(Field Notes)
January 1, 2004... Mold requires water to proliferate. Certainly mold and moisture problems can emanate from liquid water leaks--leaks through roofs and walls and leaks from faulty plumbing. However, gaseous water problems are more mysterious, since the water...

Harnessing winds with small turbines.(New and Notable)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which promotes the benefits of small wind power installations, has just published Permitting Small Wind Turbines: A Handbook. The handbook is available as a PDF file on the AWEA Web site at...

Multitasking for humanity.(New and Notable)(Habitat for Humanity partnership)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... A new partnership helps provide not just low-cost housing, but energy-efficient low-cost housing in Newburgh, New York. Helping out Habitat for Humanity with both remodeled and new construction are Steven Winter Associates, Incorporated (SWA)...

Design comes first.(New and Notable)(green buildings)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Architects must own up to the impact of their designs on global warming, according to green architect Edward Mazria, interviewed for the October 2003 cover story of Metropolis Magazine. A principal of the architectural firm Mazria Riskin Odems,...

All-solar community to feature 487 off-grid homes.(New and Notable)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Electric power lines are nowhere evident at a new housing development near Kingman, Arizona. Every ranchette in the 487-home community will be equipped with a 1.65 kW solar-power system; when all the homes are built, the community will have a...

Staying near the grid.(New and Notable)(solar-power capacity)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... An International Energy Agency (IEA) report shows an interesting trend: Although nearly all solar-power capacity was off-grid a decade ago, customer-located grid-connected systems now dominate. See the "Total Photovoltaic Power Installed"...

Plan B--in a hurry.(New and Notable)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Falling water tables and rising temperatures help explain why the world grain harvest has fallen short of consumption in each of the past four years, according to Lester Brown's new book, Plan B. In Brown's eyes, food production crises lie at...

Standards for exterior side-hinged doors.(New and Notable)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Four specifications for testing the performance of exterior side-hinged doors--a category never before addressed by an industry-wide standard--have been approved by the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA). They cover doors...

Newer homes tend to use more energy.(New and Notable)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that homes built between 1990 and 2001 consume, on average, 92.7 million Btu of energy per year, which is higher than the average energy use in homes built in the...

Win by improving world habitat.(New and Notable)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The World Habitat Award was initiated in 1985 to identify innovative and successful human settlement projects around the world that can be adapted and replicated elsewhere. The award is offered by the Building and Social Housing Foundation...

Calendar.(Calendar)
January 1, 2004... January 24-28 International Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigerating Expo, Anaheim, California. Contact American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers, 1791 Tullie Circle NE, Atlanta, GA 30329. Tel: (404)...