Building Science

The market for residential zero-energy buildings grew 59 percent across the United States and Canada last year, according to a new report.

The United States has long had tax incentives encouraging domestic energy production, for everything from oil and gas to nuclear and wind power. We do this for many reasons: to ensure stable supplies of home-grown power, to make energy more affordable, and to incentivize cleaner, greener options.

For a boat hull, it is best to essentially eliminate wetting potential with the use of a highly water- and vapor- resistive hull, or at least outer coating on the hull, right?

I’m a second-generation home builder working in northeastern Connecticut, and I’ve been building net-zero energy homes for about 10 years. In my early years doing this, I experimented with structural insulated panels (SIPs) and other methods, but these days, I have settled down to a formula based on a cellulose-insulated double stud wall sheathed with plywood on the outside, and a flat attic with deep blown cellulose.