energy efficiency

Keeping Your Historic Home Cool in Summer

KEEPING YOUR HISTORIC HOME COOL IN SUMMER is an essential part of living comfortably today. But, how was it done in the past, and what can we do now? We’ve outlined the history and applicable steps for you.    1880’s photo of a British home in India. Image source: Wikipedia’s entry on Punkahs   Historic Cooling …

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Preservation and Sustainability

Preservation and sustainability. What does one have to do with the other? If we examine these terms more closely, we can see that older buildings are inherently “green” or sustainable because of “embodied energy” (all of the energy used to build the building that would need to be expended to build something else). In fact, …

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Energy Efficiency for Historic Buildings

Winter may soon be coming to a close, but there’s still time during the tempestuous month of March for Spring to “come in like a lion,” as the old proverb goes. The uncertainty of weather related to climate change aggravates the issues we already see at the end of Winter as well, adding to the …

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Window Repair, Restoration, or Replacement

Window repair, restoration, or replacement is an unavoidable topic of concern in historic buildings. Windows in your historic property are like the eyes of the home. They are an important piece of the historical fabric of the location, and also play an integral part in energy efficiency of the property. Simultaneously, they are one of …

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Energy Efficiency and Historical Buildings

Historical buildings were built when neither advancements in technology nor construction technology was in abundant supply.  Early designers made the most of building materials and design options to construct buildings with a powerful combination of harnessed natural resources and innovative design that worked together to maximize energy efficiency. Everything from exterior paint colors, locations of …

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Energy Efficiency and Historical Wood Windows

Wood windows are an integral part of the innate energy efficiency of historical buildings. If we have learned anything from history it is that sometimes with all our modern advancements we do ourselves more harm than good. Most site here and constructors have started to adopt them because of the numerous benefits. Advancements in technology …

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