AC / Discussions

I have high ceilings and I will be adding an addition this summer with normal height ceilings and a new stairwell to the basement. Should I arrange for a ceiling fan in the older part with high ceilings or will it be redundant with HRV connected throughout? If it were me I'd want a ceiling fan in the older portion of t...

...ackup systems. As we plan to build a house to Passive House standards, is there any way to get around building it exclusively with AC power systems? I would like to build it with at least the lights running on a straight DC system to prevent waste from the inverter and again at the light source. This would also allow f...

...achieve LEED V4 Platimum in a demonstration home –  Air to air heat pump and heat pump water heater working in tandem As for tankless heaters, they can sometimes be beneficial but they have draw backs, you can read about the pros and cons here –   Are tankless on-demand water heaters a good idea? Once you get through t...

...ace for you may actually be to check out our Leed Platinum Edelweiss Demonstration house that we built in 2015, it is a super-insulated slab floor with radiant heat, and the cooling is all provided by a combination of air source heat pump and a heat pump water heater working in tandem.  Our latest demo house we used a ...

I build a second story addition on 100 yr old double brick bungalow 3 years ago. In the second summer the second floor bedrooms start to have a musty smell, particular smell coming through outlets. We cut a square into the dry wall, pushed back the insulation, cut through the vapor barrier and found mould on the exteri...

...act to cool a house, but unless your home is fairly compact, extremely well-insulated and airtight, it likely wouldn’t cool your home anywhere near enough to be a viable alternative to a mini split heat pump air conditioner.  We used an air source heat pump to feed a heat pump water heater in the Edelweiss LEED Platinu...