The case for whole-house ventilation By Tim King Across the United States, building codes are (slowly) changing to encourage the construction of tighter homes. That is, homes that incorporate new materials, designs and construction techniques that drastically limit the amount of naturally occurring airflow between indoor living areas and outdoors. The rationale? Reducing the amount…
By Barry Woods I have been driving a Chevy since April 2017. While not a surprising statement in itself, you might be surprised to find it uses no gas and runs on renewable electricity stored in a 60-kWh battery that straddles the frame. When passengers exit my car after their first time driving electric, they…
By Christine Fisher THERE’S A NEW MAINE-MADE BUILDING PRODUCT on the market, and while it began as a way to prove that masonry homes can be energy-efficient, it has found another welcome yet unintended niche: the healthy home market. Based on German design, Comfort Block™ is a 16-inch thick concrete block with three pockets of…
Fall is a great time to prepare for the upcoming heating season, and many Maine homeowners are now relying on heat pumps for most of their heating. More than 20,000 high-efficiency ductless heat pumps have been installed in Maine homes and businesses in the past 3 years. So whether you are considering a ductless heat…
By Steve Caulfield If you need a new water heater and your basement is somewhat humid and musty, you might consider a heat pump water heater to solve two problems: heating the water and conditioning the air. Heat pump water heaters may sound complex, but they operate just like your refrigerator in reverse. The refrigerator…
By Travis Ritchie It seems that 2017 is the year for the return of the electric car in America, with the release of three mass market high-range vehicle models that offer the opportunity to go more than 200 miles on a charge. Look around—a hybrid can be spotted at every stoplight and you’ll probably see…
Appraising & financing high-performance homes By Parlin Meyer Few people who embark on the adventure of building a new home have done so before. If you are venturing down this road, there are key things to know before the first shovels hit the ground. And a significant portion of this knowledge lies in the financing…
What makes a high-performing house? By Chris Briley & Heather Chandler THERE ARE A LOT of loosely defined terms used to describe how “green” a house is. Luckily, some professionals in our industry have worked very hard to find ways to quantify this almost intangible quality, and in so doing, have generated new nomenclature that can…
How to Design and Build a Pretty Good (or Better) House by Michael Maines THE BUILDING STANDARD that’s not a standard and started as a joke takes off… again. Once a month a small group gets together in Portland, Maine to discuss hot topics in building science—the field that covers everything from indoor air quality…
By Tim King SINCE HENRY FORD started his first assembly line, people have understood that the most efficient way of consistently constructing a high-quality product was to do so in an environment that was designed specifically for accomplishing those tasks. Not only is this method of manufacturing efficient – producing the highest number of widgets…