The complete source for building, designing, and remodeling green homes
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Energy Equity: Bringing Solar Power to Low-Income Communities
Originally published at Yale Environment 360. Isbel “Izzy” Palans lives in a small cabin nestled among mountain peaks and towering trees in the Colorado Rockies. Her home is often shaded…
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How Green Are Mass Timber Buildings?
This post originally appeared at Yale Environment 360. The eight-story Carbon 12 building in Portland, Oregon, is the tallest commercial structure in the United States to be built from something…
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Rail Makes Transportation Cleaner
Transportation represents a large portion — about 29% — of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the share has been rising in recent years. Rail proponents often argue that investment in trains…
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Tiny House Converts Benefit the Environment
Interest is surging in tiny homes — livable dwelling units that typically measure under 400 square feet. Much of this interest is driven by media coverage claiming that living in tiny homes…
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A Secret Weapon to Combat Road Salt Damage
Bacteria, which have been working for millennia as nature’s stonemasons, could soon be enlisted to help neutralize the destructive effects of road salt. According to the Transportation Research Board, it…
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Saving Sustainably: Installing Trim and Siding
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of blogs detailing the construction of a net-zero energy house in Point Roberts, Washington, by an owner-builder with relatively little building experience.…
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Midwest Floods of 2019: The Latest Disaster to Learn From
The catastrophic flooding in Nebraska and other states along the Missouri River has brought back painful memories of major floods like those in 1993 and 2011. We know that floods are becoming more frequent and…
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You Can Skip This Chore
I asked my neighbor who hoses off his air conditioner condenser every spring why he does it. “Because my dad always told me I had to,” he said. Conventional wisdom…
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In Germany, Consumers Embrace a Shift to Home Batteries
This post originally appeared at Yale Environment 360. Stefan Paris is a 55-year-old radiologist living in Berlin’s outer suburbs. He, his partner, and their 3-year-old daughter share a snug…
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Ductwork for ERVs, Dehumidifiers, and Forced-Air Heating Systems
Is it possible for an ERV, a whole-house dehumidifier, and a forced-air heating and cooling system to share ductwork? The answer is yes -- but these systems need to be…
