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Musings of an Energy Nerd: Toward an Energy-Efficient Home
In this fascinating collection of postings from his popular "Musings of an Energy Nerd" blog, Green Building Advisor's Martin Holladay cuts through the hype and myths about energy efficiency, sustainability, and green building to present the very best ways to make your home more energy efficient.
Martin Holladay has been making weekly postings to his "Musings of an Energy Nerd" blog on Green Building Advisor since January 2009. Along the way, he has gathered a devoted following of "energy nerds" who await his weekly musings with rapt anticipation. For the first time, the 50 most popular postings have been assembled in book form to give homeowners a great opportunity to live a more energy-efficient life in their homes.
The book begins with an overview of energy priorities, and a discussion of what we mean by terms like green and sustainable . Martin presents several options for energy upgrades for an existing house (from replacing windows to adding superinsulation) before looking at ways to improve the energy efficiency of a new house. Separate chapters follow on HVAC, domestic hot water, appliances, and renewable energy, before the book wraps up with an eye-opening chapter on useless products, scams, and myths (including Martin's list of "Stupid Energy-Saving Tips").
Martin Holladay has been making weekly postings to his "Musings of an Energy Nerd" blog on Green Building Advisor since January 2009. Along the way, he has gathered a devoted following of "energy nerds" who await his weekly musings with rapt anticipation. For the first time, the 50 most popular postings have been assembled in book form to give homeowners a great opportunity to live a more energy-efficient life in their homes.
The book begins with an overview of energy priorities, and a discussion of what we mean by terms like green and sustainable . Martin presents several options for energy upgrades for an existing house (from replacing windows to adding superinsulation) before looking at ways to improve the energy efficiency of a new house. Separate chapters follow on HVAC, domestic hot water, appliances, and renewable energy, before the book wraps up with an eye-opening chapter on useless products, scams, and myths (including Martin's list of "Stupid Energy-Saving Tips").
272 pages, Paperback
Published March 28, 2017
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81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 31, 2018
For New Englanders and the Northern Tier
This book gets it mostly right, and is a worthwhile read for anyone getting ready to build a new house. Holladay's experience is, in many cases, priceless. Heeding his advice could save a home builder beaucoup bux in repairs. He is preoccupied with building tightness as any northern Vermonter should be.
But for home builders in more gentle climates, this book is less useful. Sure, every once in awhile he'll put in some eye-candy of a California net-zero house (...and this is a *gorgeous* book. Color on almost every page! Wish my (now out of print) book The New Independent Home could have had all this color.) This is a cold climate builder's book.
Holladay loses me because he fails to understand the general physics of houses. Toward the end of the book, in his section "Reassessing Passive Solar Design Principles" he misses the point comprehensively. His take on thermal mass is silly. He writes, "Thermal mass makes a home unresponsive to changes in the weather." Um, dude, that's kinda the point? Thermal mass inside the insulated envelope is the thermal flywheel that keeps the indoor temperature within a comfortable range, like we humans prefer. "Thermal mass complicates remodeling," says he. So, grow a spine and get the design right the first time! "Thermal mass is expensive." Over its lifetime, no; every time my house stores enough heat during the day to last through the night without firing the heater, I save fuel and money. Paired with excellent, long-lasting insulation, thermal mass is one of the best investments a new home builder can make. Holladay wants you to spend the money on PVs instead.
This is a book about building mechanics – the envelope -- for builders of commodity housing. Holladay is in love with bleeding edge technology, and, an electrician, he is quick to substitute a photovoltaic array for good building practices. Here's a picture of a $5,000 HRVS. (Quick quiz: do you know what an HRVS is? There’s a lot of unexplained builder bafflegab in this book.) It's a pricey, costly-to-run, heat recovery ventilation system. The idea here is that a super tight house has indoor air problems, and so you need to engineer leaks. Having spent a bundle to heat the indoor air, an HRV or its cousin the ERV captures some of the heat being pumped out of the house, and reintroduces it with fresh (cold) outside air. In some climates -- more than half the US -- we have an earlier engineered solution: we call them windows. Sloppy home building, as Holladay points out earlier in the book with his advice about blower doors and theater fog, plays a major part, too. Houses with holes in the walls you could throw a cat through are so breezy and leaky they're impossible to heat, but their air quality is good; most were built during the era of construction when electricity was "gonna be too cheap to meter." We all build better houses these days.
This book completely fails to address in more than a cursory manner the importance of good functional space planning. If you want a book about how to guard against water damage through badly sealed exterior floors, walls, and roofs, this one works. If an old-timey builder is going to build your home, make him read the discussions of vapor barriers and insulation between surfaces, because experience has changed the thinking. Martin's 10 Rules for Roof Design are excellent. I violated every single one of them on my first roof, and subsequently had to rip that roof off and replace it with something sensible if less picturesque. There is a lot of good in this book, even if it's too much about exteriors.
Luckily, there are other wonderful books about designing a house that suits you. John Connell's classic Homing Instinct and Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn cover the same territory in a much more geographically inclusive way.
This book gets it mostly right, and is a worthwhile read for anyone getting ready to build a new house. Holladay's experience is, in many cases, priceless. Heeding his advice could save a home builder beaucoup bux in repairs. He is preoccupied with building tightness as any northern Vermonter should be.
But for home builders in more gentle climates, this book is less useful. Sure, every once in awhile he'll put in some eye-candy of a California net-zero house (...and this is a *gorgeous* book. Color on almost every page! Wish my (now out of print) book The New Independent Home could have had all this color.) This is a cold climate builder's book.
Holladay loses me because he fails to understand the general physics of houses. Toward the end of the book, in his section "Reassessing Passive Solar Design Principles" he misses the point comprehensively. His take on thermal mass is silly. He writes, "Thermal mass makes a home unresponsive to changes in the weather." Um, dude, that's kinda the point? Thermal mass inside the insulated envelope is the thermal flywheel that keeps the indoor temperature within a comfortable range, like we humans prefer. "Thermal mass complicates remodeling," says he. So, grow a spine and get the design right the first time! "Thermal mass is expensive." Over its lifetime, no; every time my house stores enough heat during the day to last through the night without firing the heater, I save fuel and money. Paired with excellent, long-lasting insulation, thermal mass is one of the best investments a new home builder can make. Holladay wants you to spend the money on PVs instead.
This is a book about building mechanics – the envelope -- for builders of commodity housing. Holladay is in love with bleeding edge technology, and, an electrician, he is quick to substitute a photovoltaic array for good building practices. Here's a picture of a $5,000 HRVS. (Quick quiz: do you know what an HRVS is? There’s a lot of unexplained builder bafflegab in this book.) It's a pricey, costly-to-run, heat recovery ventilation system. The idea here is that a super tight house has indoor air problems, and so you need to engineer leaks. Having spent a bundle to heat the indoor air, an HRV or its cousin the ERV captures some of the heat being pumped out of the house, and reintroduces it with fresh (cold) outside air. In some climates -- more than half the US -- we have an earlier engineered solution: we call them windows. Sloppy home building, as Holladay points out earlier in the book with his advice about blower doors and theater fog, plays a major part, too. Houses with holes in the walls you could throw a cat through are so breezy and leaky they're impossible to heat, but their air quality is good; most were built during the era of construction when electricity was "gonna be too cheap to meter." We all build better houses these days.
This book completely fails to address in more than a cursory manner the importance of good functional space planning. If you want a book about how to guard against water damage through badly sealed exterior floors, walls, and roofs, this one works. If an old-timey builder is going to build your home, make him read the discussions of vapor barriers and insulation between surfaces, because experience has changed the thinking. Martin's 10 Rules for Roof Design are excellent. I violated every single one of them on my first roof, and subsequently had to rip that roof off and replace it with something sensible if less picturesque. There is a lot of good in this book, even if it's too much about exteriors.
Luckily, there are other wonderful books about designing a house that suits you. John Connell's classic Homing Instinct and Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn cover the same territory in a much more geographically inclusive way.
September 23, 2023
Holladay's book is my go-to reference for DIY home renovation methods that will conserve energy. Many of his suggestions have aged well despite technological advances.
A review criticized the book's lack of broad applicability across climatic regions, and that is fair. I am biased towards Holladay's intended audience -- cold climates -- because I live in cold. Sections on ice dams won't seem worth the paper they're printed on for folks living in Phoenix, AZ. On the flip side, I think the focus on cold climate reflects Hollday's experience living in the Northeast and perhaps Holladay not wanting to speak about climates that he has no hands-on experience. In sum, this book Holladay sharing his hands-on experience with the methods of building and renovating homes in an energy efficient way.
A review criticized the book's lack of broad applicability across climatic regions, and that is fair. I am biased towards Holladay's intended audience -- cold climates -- because I live in cold. Sections on ice dams won't seem worth the paper they're printed on for folks living in Phoenix, AZ. On the flip side, I think the focus on cold climate reflects Hollday's experience living in the Northeast and perhaps Holladay not wanting to speak about climates that he has no hands-on experience. In sum, this book Holladay sharing his hands-on experience with the methods of building and renovating homes in an energy efficient way.
December 9, 2018
Martin Holladay knows what each of today's best building scientists knows and this book summarizes the wisdom developed over his decades of turning their research into practical recommendations. Whether you are fascinated by how houses work or need to improve your understanding of your own house, this is a must read!
September 20, 2022
Very helpful, and well-written.
October 11, 2022
Very useful for anyone considering building, remodeling, or buying a home. Good analysis of trade-offs. Lots of technical details but still readable for someone wanting the big picture.
December 16, 2022
really great read for anyone and everyone interested in how to build or retrofit comfortable and efficient homes. All helpful information as we rapidly begin to electrify homes with heat pumps.
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October 21, 2023school 🧍🏼♀️
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews