Plumbing; metal connectors
-
Heating with dogs
Landscaping; energy conservation
With high fuel prices here to stay, now is the time to get it right.
You can now get a prefabricated sunroom that will satisfy nearly every design and budget. But you have to work with the manufacturer to make sure you get what you and your customers want. Our guide to systems, glazing, and current codes will help you select sunrooms for the long run, leaving...
-
Q. Passive Solar Flooring Instead of tile, my clients want to install a wood-finish floor over the insulated concrete slab of a planned passive solar addition. They've also asked us to install tubing in the slab to give them the option of radiantly heating the space. But won't wood flooring have a...
Extra insulation, smart window placement, and thermal mass add comfort and generate energy savings for this New England home.
All windows worth buying should carry a valid warranty and meet basic structural and thermal performance measures. On the coast, however, strong winds and blowing rain make it imperative that windows meet even more stringent performance requirements. Editor Clayton DeKorne sorts through the...
Q. Same Windows, Different Climates? As a HERS rater working in north-central New England, I've noticed that the U-values of the windows that most builders are installing are quite good — below .35 — but they have low SHGC (solar heat-gain coefficient) values. While it seems that windows with...
-
Using PEX in solar water heating; solar hot-water storage; hot-water recirculation; leak testing