Green Building Advisor

5 days ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Justin Wolf

South Harpswell sits at the end of a narrow peninsula, facing due southwest toward Casco Bay. Like a lot of coastal hamlets in Maine’s mid-coast and Downeast regions, the land formations are long and irregular, resembling flecks of paint being thrown onto a canvas from a distance. In other words, the topography is unique.

1 week ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Martin Holladay

While cleaning out a closet recently, I came across two instrument cases that I inherited from my grandfather after he died in 2000 at the age of 98. The first is an old-fashioned leather-strapped wooden tool case that holds three thermometers, each with a dial face and a long icepick-like temperature probe. The second is an unusual, decades-old battery-powered psychrometer—an instrument for measuring atmospheric moisture.

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Abby Cote

Wind-driven rain can penetrate almost all types of siding, including vinyl siding, wood clapboards, cedar shingles, stucco, and brick veneer. To reduce the chance that exterior moisture will cause sheathing rot, every wall should have a water-resistive barrier—that is, a layer of asphalt felt, plastic housewrap, or a similar product—between the siding and the wall sheathing.

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | Brian Pontolilo

You know those heat pumps that seem to be doing their best impression of a jet engine every time they kick on? Or the ones that aggressively blast you with cold air like they’re trying to prove something? Well, the Introverter Heat Pump is not one of those. No, this system is the HVAC equivalent of the guy at the party who spends the entire evening in the corner petting the host’s dog.

1 month ago | greenbuildingadvisor.com | David K. Warfel |Brian Pontolilo

I have been a lighting geek for more years than I want to admit, but I started out more concerned with how the lighting looked than how many resources I consumed in the process. Early in my career I spent a decade teaching theatrical lighting design at a large state university and it was not unusual for me to design a show with 300,000 watts of lighting over the stage.