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I get asked this quite a bit: when should I involve a building performance consultant in the architectural design process? The answer is: the moment design involves building performance— Efficiency Energy Water Materials Indoor environmental quality Air quality Thermal Comfort Acoustics Durability Enclosure Mechanicals Finishes. Optimizing each and all of the above aspects of building …

Conducting a Building Science/Building Performance Design Review Read More »

COVID-19 & Curriculum Development For several years, our local Sustainable Energy Outreach Network (SEON) has been developing a High Performance Building Associate certificate program (http://www.seon.info/hpb-overview/ ). In early March 2020, we were in the middle of the 2-day class in northern Vermont when everything changed. Pretty bad timing, given that the second day of the …

Using Building Science to Conduct a Building Assessment Read More »

Back in October 2016, I started my Building Science Puzzles on GBA with this blog: Building Science Puzzles: The Jigsaw Approach. In that post I explained six steps for solving building science problems; steps borrowed from my wife’s approach to solving jigsaw puzzles. Those steps are: Assume nothing Establish boundaries Find patterns Zoom out Cheat …

The Jigsaw Approach, Revisited Read More »

Tracking down performance problems is all about getting the building science right–and following the rules of jigsaw puzzles AUTHOR’S NOTE: This blog was originally published on GreenBuildingAdvisor in October 2016 and recently posted here because I am doing a new companion blog to this one, posting it soon… Just about every week, I get a …

Building Science Puzzles: The Jigsaw Approach Read More »

How much moisture does a new building release and do I need to worry about it? Depending on where, when, how fast, and how well you build, construction moisture—sometimes called “built-in” moisture—may require significant one-time management. I learned from my grandmother that my great-grandfather was a Pennsylvania home builder. She told us that he never …

Dealing with Construction Moisture Read More »

Are these rotating roof vents driven by wind, stack effect, or exhaust fans? As it turns out, these vents are driven by a bit of each.. To begin, the vents are quite beautiful… The turbine vents shown here are called Effico Roof Ventilators, manufactured by the WF Hirschman Co. in the 1920s. The larger ones …

Pete’s Puzzle: Old-School Turbine Vents Read More »

Are these rotating roof vents driven by wind, stack effect, or exhaust fans? Back in October, I wrote a blog post called “Can Buildings Take Vacation Too?” about the potential need to be concerned with moisture issues when a building is shut down for an extended period of time. I had just completed a building investigation of …

Can Buildings Take Vacation Too? (Part II) Read More »

This question has come up several times in the last few years: what sort of moisture issues do we need to be concerned about if a building is “shut down” for an extended period of time? First, let’s make sure we are all on the same page about what it means to “shut down” a home. …

Can Buildings Take Vacation Too? Read More »

In the first two rounds of soffit-to-ridge vent Wingnut testing (see Round 1 and Round 2 ), I used a simple and small easel test rig to simulate what happens in real cathedral roof assemblies that have soffit-to-ridge venting. At the end of each of those rounds, it seemed pretty clear that we needed to …

Wingnut Testing of Soffit-to-Ridge Venting, Round 3 Read More »

An environmental microscopist’s perspective In part I of this blog, we looked at some puzzling examples of unidentified substances from buildings I have investigated over the years and discussed how sometimes it is challenging to determine whether what looks like something that is growing on various surfaces of buildings is actually alive, dead, or neither. …

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral (Part II) Read More »