By Green Building Inspector It’s not news that appraisers are breaking new ground when it comes to the area of setting value to green or high performance homes. Jump starting the “green built home” idea goes against the standard norms of the appraisal process. But, energy efficient construction practices have been around for a long time and their value is well documented, if not in journals and periodicals, within the pocketbooks of those who live in them. Building Green Works!
Continue reading Appraising the Green Build – Fact or Fiction
By Green Building Inspector Your ability to communicate effectively with the unique personalities of your customers affects your project’s success. There are several personality typing systems to explore. Check out the CAP Model at Speechmastery to learn about the 4 types: The Controller, The Analyst, The Supporter and The…
Continue reading Understanding personality types for successful customer relations
By Elisa Wood It’s likely that you’ve heard of EnergyStar and seen the recent headlines about US Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency efforts to ensure that appliances are as energy efficient as the blue EnergyStar label indicates. It’s less likely that you’ve heard of a parallel DOE effort to ensure that minimum energy conservation standards are being met. Because mandatory efficiency standards apply to the manufacture of appliances and therefore are
Continue reading There’s a new sheriff in town
By Green Building Inspector We each have a reaction to uncertainty. Some find it exhilarating. Some find it terrifying. In all cases there is an element of stress. If you are a custom builder, you are intimately involved with managing stress-your own as well as the effects of your customer’s stress upon you.
Continue reading Be an Educator Too! — Custom Building and Client Relations
By Green Building Inspector Green Building: Surprising Lessons Learned – What choices matter? Not the ones you think…..
In a short, funny, data-packed talk at TED U, Catherine Mohr walks through all the geeky decisions she made when building a green new house — good info too…
Continue reading Green Building Lessons Learned – Catherine Mohr – Video
By Green Building Inspector Whether you are increasing the insulation levels in your current home or selecting insulation for a new home, choosing the right insulation material can be challenging. Fibrous loose-fill insulations such as cellulose, fiberglass, and rock wool are options you may wish to consider. This publication will introduce you to these materials-what they are, how they are applied, how they compare with each other, and other considerations regarding their use-so that you can decide whether loose fills are right for your home.
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By Elisa Wood What’s the shelf life of today’s support for energy efficiency technologies? The industry has seen an unprecedented boom over the last several years. But all booms eventually bust. A recent souring of public opinion about global warming science has some industry insiders bracing for impact. Will American enthusiasm for clean energy come to a halt? Only if it was global warming that spurred the enthusiasm in the first place – and I suspect it was not.
Continue reading Will Public Support for Efficiency Continue?
By Elisa Wood It’s clear that the energy efficiency industry is undergoing an unprecedented boom, spurred by state and federal support and movement toward a smarter grid. But for those in the industry, where exactly can the new business – and the jobs – be found? Two new reports by Colorado-based Pike Research shed some light. After years of focusing on…
Continue reading Hot Sectors for Energy Efficiency
By Elisa Wood Don’t be surprised, says the report, to see a national retail store chain partner with an electric battery maker to install charging stations nationwide for plug-in electric vehicles. A new wave of corporate mergers and acquisitions also could be
Continue reading Is green energy our new plastics industry?
By Elisa Wood Tip his hand? In fact, as Stewart pointed out, Obama has shown that hand broadly to the world for the last year. Starting with his January 2009 inaugural speech, Obama buoyed the clean energy industry by advancing renewable energy, a first for a US president in that forum. But that turned out to be just the start. In talk after talk this year, he pushed
Continue reading Obama, Poker and What 2010 Holds for Energy Efficiency
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