Aerogels are an amazing material for a variety of reasons. But one of the big ones in relation to energy modeling and buildings is their amazing properties of insulation. Hell, they are the reference image on the R-value wikipedia page.

So what are aerogels? They are the lightest solid in the world, due to their extremely porous nature, being over 90% air.  They were first discovered in the 1931's when two chemists bet who could replace the liquid in a gel material with a gas without causing the original form of the gel to be altered. The resulting material where the liquid component of the gel has been extracted though supercritical...

The other morning I was watching the news on the Vice Presidential debate, and the TV screen was panning across a document that cited ENERGY MODELING! Now, I had only watched part of the debate, so this really gauged my interest, "How did building energy simulation [energy modeling] tie into the debate?

For those of you who watched it or didn't watch it. The debate (according to Twitter) went something like this:

....

[Okay, let's get serious. The...

If you google “How to save energy” - most of the results you get are either  common sense  - or only half true. I just read one that said to make sure that you "air dry" dishes instead of heating them. Really? Reading between the lines, you are basically saying that you think your clients are stupid? It's time we start giving credit to people asking this question.

Here at energy-models.com, we study “How to save energy” for a living, and we know that it’s not always cut and dry, and we're pretty sure that most of you are smart enough to understand more than "Change your lightbulbs"

For instance, did you know that for most of  U.S.A. - adding insulation can actually INCREASE your...

Call me an energy nerd.... I've read tons of articles on saving energy, and they involve buying various gadgets (many of which I own), but what I am going to list here is 5 things (actually 6) you can do to your own house that take only a few minutes (most of them) and that are basically free.  The goal here is to keep the house cool, without unnecessary effort and for free! 

Common sense tells you to keep your blinds closed on a hot sunny day. This lowers your solar gains, as well as gives better insulation, but there's more too it than just closing them.