“We need to think about insulation, or to start thinking about it in the first place,” says a Vox news story this week. As part of a series that addresses our warming world, Vox writer Neel Dhanesha calls insulation the climate solution hiding in our walls. There’s no time like today — Earth Day — to talk about insulation’s important role as a tool for pollution reduction.
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NAIMA recently released a new version of its popular 3E Plus software, which allows users to calculate the appropriate thickness necessary for any application of pipe or mechanical insulation.
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Nationwide the construction industry needs 650,000 more workers to meet building demand this year alone, according to experts. Adding to the urgency is that up to 40 percent of the construction workforce is expected to retire by 2030.[1] After many years of bad news about the construction trades workforce comes the good news this week that enrollment in skilled trades programs has boomed since the start of the pandemic.
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Long-needed energy efficiency improvements in much of America’s public housing means that low-income tenants spend a significant portion of their income on energy costs. Moreover, buildings are the second-largest carbon dioxide emissions source. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeks to address this by launching an experiment with architects and public housing agencies to retrofit these homes with heat pumps and insulation upgrades to improve their efficiency.
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Responsible for nearly 40 percent of global climate emissions, buildings are critical to the government’s response to climate change. As lawmakers and climate advocates look for new policies that will curb greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment, the old rallying cry for energy efficiency is being replaced by calls for policies that drive building decarbonization. This leads to the question, just where does energy efficiency fit in this broader goal of decarbonization?
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Despite the ongoing pandemic, 2021 was a record-breaking year for investment in the energy transition and renewable power, battery storage, and sustainable transportation, according to the 2022 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, published by BloombergNEF (BNEF) and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE). This tenth annual edition of the Factbook concludes that unprecedented injection of new capital into companies, technologies, and projects, as well as a wave of supportive new policies, drove the growth in clean energy transition and energy efficiency.
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According to the U.S. Department of Energy, improperly installed insulation and air leakage can waste 20 percent or more of the energy used to heat and cool a home. For builders, this can wreak havoc on productivity, resulting in callbacks, jeopardizing code compliance, reducing HERS scores, and delivering homes that are less energy efficient and comfortable for homeowners.
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The Building Talent Foundation (BTF) recently released the results of a survey on talent retention in the residential building and skilled trades arena. The results could help home builders and contractors improve employee retention strategies in a hot housing market faced with numerous pressures, including competition for workers due to the pandemic.
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It’s difficult to determine how much air is entering a house through walls that are built, not only for shelter and support but also to prevent airflow as an energy conservation measure. However, several ASTM tests are available to accurately measure airflow through common walls to aid in determining problem areas and finding ways to abate unwanted airflow.
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No matter your building challenge, fiberglass and mineral wool will meet the job’s demands. Fiberglass and mineral wool insulation make up 72% of the insulation material in new homes for a reason.[1] Both products are highly cost-effective selections to meet desired labeled thermal performance.
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