nesea

On the road to a low-energy house

Building technology is improving every day, but if it's a super energy-efficient dwelling you're after, the tools are already well at hand.

Once a year, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association organizes a green buildings open house where energy nerds like myself can see the latest in home efficiency.

The homes, which are both new construction and renovations, show that builders, architects, and homeowners have unlocked the code for making buildings dramatically more energy efficient than your typical construction. The question now is whether green building techniques and products will remain on the fringe or become more mainstream.

In … Read more

'Deep-energy retrofits' take root in homes

BOSTON--Perhaps not surprisingly, wrapping a home in an air-tight seal and adding insulation dramatically lowers utility bills. But the question is: can people afford it?

On Thursday, contractors who could be considered pioneers in "deep-energy retrofits" presented results from their projects at the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's BuildingEnergy conference here. In general, the data from early projects in Massachusetts shows that these energy makeovers delivered big gains in efficiency--on the order of 50 percent to 70 percent.

There are a number of techniques to cut building energy but the one these contractors often focus on is superinsulating, … Read more

To 'green' the world's buildings, think retrofits

BOSTON--The cutting edge of building science these days seems to be more about expanding foam than solar power research.

Last Wednesday, I stopped by the Building Energy Conference put on by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA). If there was one theme that jumped out, it was energy efficiency.

Insulating and air sealing a building, with stuff like expanding foam, has always been a sensible way to lower utility bills. But weatherizing homes is increasingly seen as the first and vital step to perhaps more exciting technologies like solar and wind.

At the morning keynote discussion, Mark Rosenbaum of building … Read more