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Recent Articles
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Building Strategies in a Hot, Humid Climate
AlbertoArriaga33 is wrestling with plans for a new home in a tropical location. He doesn't say exactly where, but conditions are certainly challenging: high heat and high humidity, with nighttime…
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Renewable Energy Expected to Eclipse Coal This Year
Hundreds of coal-fired power plants went off line in the last decade while renewable energy continued to gain ground and for the first time this year, renewables will provide more…
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European Court Rebuffs Critics of Wood Pellets
The European Court of Justice has thrown out a challenge to a renewable energy policy that encourages the use of compressed wood pellets for utility-scale power generation, ruling that the…
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Rainscreen Details for a Board-and-Batten Retrofit
One thing on Drew Goldsack's spring cleaning punch list this year is removing the vinyl siding from his Alberta home and replacing it with cedar board-and-batten siding. As he explains…
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A Beginner’s Guide to HVAC Design
In simpler times, choosing heating and cooling equipment amounted to calling a contractor or two, getting what seemed like a good price, and letting the contractor do the rest. Those…
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Report Calls Gas Stoves an Unregulated Health Threat
Junk the gas range and go electric for improved indoor air quality and better health, a new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) says. Gas stoves are a major…
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Hedging Bets on a Heating and Cooling System
Brenton is building a new house in southern Maine (Climate Zone 6) that he currently plans to insulate with a combination of open- and closed-cell spray foam plus a continuous…
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Pandemic Pushes Down Energy Use and Carbon Emissions
Carbon emissions in 2020 are headed for the sharpest drop ever recorded as the coronavirus pandemic rattles global energy markets, the International Energy Agency says in a new report. Globally,…
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Energy Upgrades on a Budget
Andrew Bennett is giving his 1991 home in eastern Tennessee an efficiency upgrade, as time and budget permits. He has a long list of improvements he'd like to make—new windows, sealing…
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The Pandemic Takes Its Toll on the Construction Industry
Builder confidence is sagging in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a new study in Texas suggests that allowing construction job sites to remain open raises risks for both…
