Energy Audit Glossary

What Is A Weather Resistant Barrier (Ohhhh…That’s What Tyvek is)?

October 12, 2011
What Is A Weather Resistant Barrier

  There’s a great deal of functional overlap between materials that act as an air barrier, vapor barrier and as a weather resistant barrier. We’ve covered air barriers and vapor barriers in previous posts, but what is a weather resistant barrier? And what’s with the rest of the layers and barriers of your building enclosure [...]

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What Is A Thermal Barrier (Yes, That’s Your Insulation)

September 30, 2011
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  What is the thermal barrier and why do we need such a fancy term for fiberglass insulation? And for a change, instead of five sentences of contrived SEO mumbo jumbo, let’s jump into it. What is The Thermal Barrier (Yes, I snuck in an SEO phrase) The thermal ‘barrier’ or enclosure or control layer [...]

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What is Radon (Yes, It’s Radioactive…No, It’s Not A Godzilla Villain)?

September 27, 2011
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  What is radon? Radon is one of those New England boogie phrases like ‘standing water’ or ‘Olympia Snowe’. Just frightening. But what is radon and why do your neighbors insist on mitigating it? Yes, What is Radon – Your Wiki Style Answer Radon, despite sounding suspiciously like a Godzilla movie character, is a radioactive [...]

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What Is The Building Envelope (or Building Shell or Building Enclosure)?

September 19, 2011
What Is The Building Envelope

  I talk about it all the time but what the heck is the building envelope (or to use the more appropriate modern term, what is the building enclosure)? Why is the building envelope important? As a side note, I’m going to use the terms, ‘building shell’, ‘building enclosure’ and ‘building envelope’ interchangeably. Building scientists [...]

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What is EPS Foam (Seriously, Why Am I Insulating With Packing Peanuts)?

September 17, 2011
What is EPS Foam (Seriously, I'm Insulating With Packing Peanuts)?

  What is EPS foam insulation (also called expanded polystyrene or bead board)? How is EPS foam insulation used in my home? What is the EPS foam’s R-value and how is it different from XPS foam (aka the blue boards in Home Depot)? And why do I keep saying ‘What is EPS foam’ instead of [...]

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