Days 2 & 3 – BPI Building Envelope Training

By Sean | Published: July 30, 2010

Well, I guess I will keep the tradition alive by combining the last two days of class together. I am seriously considering breaking one of my own rules and disclosing at least one or two of the questions. However, before we get to that, let’s correct the issue with the instructors name & take a look first at Day 2 of Building Envelope training.
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Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Tagged , | 3 Comments

August and Late Summer Maintenance Checklist

By Sean | Published: July 29, 2010

Well I have some good news & some bad news – the good news is that this is the last full month of summer. The bad news is that it is still summer time & if July was any indication, this might not be pretty. On the home front, vacations are winding down & it is time to start getting the kids ready to go back to school (Back to School Organizational Tips). On the national front, we are looking at a hurricane season that is about ready to ramp up, if history is ...
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Posted in Maintaining Your Investment | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Day 1: BPI Building Envelope Training

By Sean | Published: July 28, 2010

Woo hoo – I am taking my last BPI class that this time is being taught by EverBlue. I must admit, after my problems with Clean Edison, and then a few snafus with EverBlue’s computer system, I was wondering if I was ever going to get my BPI Building Envelope certification. As you can obviously tell, I have made it through day 1 and should be getting my final certification in another month, or two. The one interesting thing is that the first day ...
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Posted in General Articles | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Building Green Homes: Step 3 – Footings & Foundations

By Sean | Published: July 26, 2010

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can (or even how you can) utilize those lessons on future builds. As a quick recap, we have looked at some of the unique issues we were facing, designing & modeling an energy efficient structure, and finally the layout & orientation of the building. While we gave you a sneak preview in ...
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Posted in Green Building / Sustainable Common Sense Building & Remodeling | Tagged | 3 Comments

Building Green Homes: Step 2 – Layout & Orientation

By Sean | Published: July 23, 2010

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can (or even how you can) utilize those lessons on future builds. Now that we have a set of building plans for an Energy Efficient Green House to work off, we can now get to laying out the building on site.

Layout – isn’t it all on the plans?
Well in some cases it is, while ...
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Posted in Green Building / Sustainable Common Sense Building & Remodeling | Tagged | 9 Comments

Building Green Homes: Step 1 – Design & Modeling

By Sean | Published: July 21, 2010

In this series on Looking Back & Looking Forward, we are reviewing a green home we built over 2 years ago, the lessons learned and more importantly, how we can utilize those lessons on future builds. As everyone knows, you don’t start building without a plan (hopefully I can find that file soon). While this double Mother in Law Cabin had some interesting requirements, there is no way we could cover everything in this article. As we mentioned in a prior article one of ...
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Posted in Green Building / Sustainable Common Sense Building & Remodeling | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Building Green Homes: Looking back & Lessons Learned

By Sean | Published: July 19, 2010

I guess I can credit some of my desire to learn about and utilize energy efficient designs, green buildings, & solar power with the area I grew up in. I can recall some of our schools field trips where we would go see new houses being built with photovoltaic panels, and eating food cooked on solar ovens. Each year they would hold a festival dedicated to items like this. Shoot we were probably also one of the very first schools in the nation that ...
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Posted in Green Building / Sustainable Common Sense Building & Remodeling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Becoming a RESNET Certified Rater & the next steps

By Sean | Published: July 17, 2010

As we mentioned back in Energy Auditing Services Update – RESNET Certification article, we have completed all the steps required to become a Certified Energy Rater with RESNET. Unlike the BPI certification we received earlier in the same week, there is a lot more involved in this process than simply taking a written test & completing one field exam. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to delve into the reasons and the process, and what the next steps are.

The Reasons:

RESNET was ...
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Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Energy Auditing Services Update – RESNET Certification

By Sean | Published: July 12, 2010

As we mentioned back in our Updates & Happenings at SLS Construction, we were pursuing Certification from both BPI & RESNET for Energy Auditing & Consulting Services that we are adding. Well, as of July 9th I finally completed the final step to become one of RESNET’s newest raters. In our case, we are Certified Energy Rater #EVER22, utilizing Energy Vanguard  as our Authorized Rating Provider. RESNET was structured to ensure a high level of quality assurance as required by the Mortgage Industry and other ...
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Posted in Infrared & Energy Auditing | Tagged | 8 Comments

EPA RRP Updates – The Three Stooges & a few other updates

By Sean | Published: July 10, 2010

As we had previously mentioned and discussed, as of July 6th there is a new Record Keeping Requirement that affects all contractors working on Pre78 Target Housing. Unfortunately, it appears that what the EPA stated it was going to be & what they posted on the E-CFR site is slightly different. Hmmm, they couldn’t possibly trying to cover up that loophole we pointed out – could they? Well with just a few mouse clicks, they have now managed to affect every single renovation that happens on any pre78 houses – with or without ...
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Posted in EPA Lead Regulations | Tagged , | 4 Comments

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