The DOE and EPA today announced the recipients of the 2012 Energy Star Awards. The winners’ list consists of product manufacturers, energy providers, and building science organizations, among others, who all will gather at an awards dinner tonight in Washington, D.C., which also will kick off Energy Star’s 20-year anniversary celebration. For the past two decades, the program has been certifying and promoting energy-conserving building methods, materials, and products and partnering with like-minded companies. Acc
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Energy Star, Winners
A Pretty Good House design for a mixed-humid climate.
What is it about Maine? Some of my favorite people in the home energy pro community live there. We just signed up our first HERSIndex or scoring system for energy efficiency established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) that compares a given home to a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Reference Home based on the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code. A home matching the reference home has a HERS Index of 100. The lower a home’s HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is. A
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Good House, House, Pretty Good, Pretty Good House
There is something mysterious about old, primeval forest. Massive trees stretch their way up into the sky to leave the forest floor in perpetual shade. The rustling of leaves in the undergroth reveals the presence of small animals that attempt to stay hidden from larger predators. Treetops are given voice by the wind and woodland birds enchant the forest with song. At night, however, the woods take on a different, more 
sinister appearance. The shadows grow long and dark and every sound sets your nerves on edge. Diurnal beings that we are, we can’t see into the dim recesses and fear is quickly made tangible by repressed instinctive memories of predators lurking in the dark of the night. Read more…
Green homes, which comprised 17% of the overall residential construction market in 2011, are expected to grow to between 29% and 38% of the market by 2016, according to a new study released last week at the International Builders’ Show.
This equates to a fivefold increase, from $17 billion in 2011 to between $87 and $114 billion in 2016, based on the five-year forecast for overall residential construction. According to the report by McGraw-Hill Construction, construction industry professionals report an even steeper increase in green home remodeling; 34% of remodelers expect to be doing mostly green work by 2016, a 150% increase over 2011 activity levels. M
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2016, Fivefold 2016