18 HVAC Design Mistakes in Custom Homes – GreenBuildingAdvisor
At Energy Vanguard, we’ve designed HVAC systems for thousands of homes across the United States. We’ve made our share of HVAC design mistakes, of course. And we’ve learned from them. We’ve also been in a lot of homes with HVAC systems designed by others and have seen some of their mistakes too. So let’s take […]
My house (Climate zone 4A) has a small attic (200sf), which is encapsulated with 4″ of polyiso above the roof deck, mineral wool batts in the rafter space and an intello smart membrane below the rafters. The attic floor is uninsulated and air sealed with spray-applied foam. The attic is currently unvented and unconditioned. However, […]
I have a house built in 1960 in Climate Zone 4A. I am looking to insulate or at least air seal the rim joist bays along with insulating the basement walls (pictures provided below). Since there looks to be no sill gasket, my concern is that capillary action through the foundation walls is going to […]
Integrated design is widely discussed, frequently advocated for, and still unevenly practiced across the building industry. It involves a range of stakeholders, including owners, architects, engineers, and a wide range of consultants, yet the critical player—the builder—is sometimes overlooked in early design discussions. To better understand how integrated design shows up in real projects—who initiates […]
Hi All We’re in framing stage. As air barrier, I have Zip 1/2″ on the attic floor. This goes underneath the knee wall bottom plates. The roof is not fully framed and we’re not dried in. There was some back and forth regarding how we do Zip due to risk of rain. Options were do […]