Understand how a structure such as a house works to create a comfortable interior environment and learn the ways insulation is added to an existing home. Watch this helpful video:…

Find out if you are the brightest bulb when it comes to energy efficiency trivia! Test your Home Energy IQ.

Take the…

When it comes to improving energy efficiency, there are a lot of questions homeowners…

If you’re a homeowner, whom do you call when you find mold in a closet and on the ceiling of a bathroom? How about when paint starts peeling on your dining room wall? Whom do you call when there’s standing water in your crawl space? Whom do you think to contact when it’s getting harder and more expensive to keep the house warm in the…

In the 1970s, Princeton’s Twin Rivers Project found that the behavior of the occupant is a determining factor of the energy used in a home. Families living in identical units (floor plans, furnaces, and appliances) had widely varying energy use. In fact, when new occupants moved into previously occupied units, their energy use was…

One year into having our rooftop solar panels installed here in Portland Oregon, we’re living off the sun. That’s to say, we producing slightly more electricity than we’re using. Yippee! (The wonks among us call this achieving net zero.)

What's the…

The kitchen is illuminated with ten 12W ceiling can lights. The two pendant lights are 3W LEDs. LED equivalents were not yet available for the fluorescent undercounter lights.  

This all started in August 2010 when we discovered that a rat had eaten gaping holes in the outlet hose of our dishwasher. When all the damage was counted, we were looking at a complete…

The north side of the Parker-Shepperd house after remodeling. Note from the “before” photo (below) that sloped roof trusses were added to accommodate insulation and PV panels, and that an addition pushed out into the original front porch.…