Blog
Electricity Demand Spikes in Summer Heatwave
We’ve all been feeling the heat. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that the July heatwave led to higher nationwide peak demand than last year – 704 gigawatts at 6:00 pm on July 19 – about 20% more than a typical summer day. In the mid-Atlantic, peak...
Buildings Have The Most Impact
It’s natural to assume that tailpipes and smokestacks are the main source of greenhouse gases. Transportation and manufacturing do account for 35% of our carbon emissions. But, we start to question our “tailpipe intuitions” when we learn that agriculture weighs in at...
Radon
When was the last time you checked your house for Radon? Did you do a short term or long term test? New studies are showing that the short term 48 hour tests are not accurate enough to properly determine if radon is an issue in your home. Radon levels are highly...
Crawl Spaces
Many, many homes have crawl spaces. And the vast majority of these crawl spaces are improperly done, with an exposed dirt floor and/or an improperly installed vapor barrier. This allows for easy liquid and water vapor infiltration causing moisture to collect on the...
Why Water Vapor is Bad for Your Health
Even if your house is sealed up nice and tight, water vapor issues can still exist in your home. The simple act of living in a space creates water vapor from things like breathing, showering, washing dishes, cooking, and washing and drying clothes.Typically, the ideal...
Crystal Balls…
Mystifying, Magical, Curious Unknowns... Want to know what Better Building Works does? Better Building Works does not own a “Crystal Ball”. If we did, we would love to use it but we would not really trust it. What we do use and trust is building science, math and a...
Why Building Science Is Important to Incorporate into Every Level of Building Design and Construction
We all want to live and work in beautiful buildings, but just because it looks good doesn’t mean it works well. Designs that fail to take building science into account and don’t use a whole building/systems approach are often uncomfortable, unhealthy, inefficient, and...
The Virginia Building Code, A Catch 22
The Virginia Residential Building Code allows two options for verifying air tightness in new construction. The first option is a Blower Door Test and the second is just a visual inspection, which as you can imagine, is the most commonly used method as it is generally...
Natural Capital: Perception, Reality and Conversation.
Engaging with our community is a favorite past time at Better Building Works. We have partnered with Hannah Godsey on her project: “Natural Capital: Perception, Reality and Conversation.” The project is her final Thesis towards her Masters of Natural Resources in...