Library

ENERGY STAR's Expert Home Improvements webpage.

ENERGY STAR article on finding a refrigerator or freezer recycling program.

Calculator helping users determine cost savings of refrigerator replacement.

Report summarizing the requirements for strenghtening and protecting the roof, openings in the house, and creating a continuous load path to strengthen walls and foundation per the IBHS Fortified Homes Hurricane Standard for Existing Homes.

Checklist providing good and bad methods of fortifying the roof, especially in high wind situations.

Checklist providing good and bad methods of fortifying the roof, especially in hurricanes.

Checklist providing information about the specific requirements of FORTIFIED Roof™ design and construction standard for re-roofing specific for high wind resistance.

Checklist providing information about the specific requirements of FORTIFIED Roof™ design and construction standard for re-roofing specific for high wind and hail resistance.

Checklist providing information about the specific requirements of FORTIFIED Roof™ design and construction standard for re-roofing specific for hurricane resistance.

Website providing technical documents of checklists, calculators, bulletin, modular home toolkit, standard details, and corrosion resistance requirements – map set; describing the requirements of the IBHS Fortified Home program to improve the disaster resistance of new and existing homes.

Regulatory compliance regarding furniture stability requirements

Article describing the danger of furniture tip-overs

Guide describing how and where to install flashings in order to weatherproof a roof.

Fact sheet defining a grid-interactive efficient building and its benefits.

Website highlighting the DOE Building Technologies Office Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings Initiative, including technical reports, other publications, resources, and presentations.

Report evaluating HVAC building technologies based on their ability to provide grid services and the type of value provided, including efficiency, load shed, load shift, and modulation.

Report evaluating lighting and electronic building technologies based on their ability to provide grid services and the type of value provided, including efficiency, load shed, load shift, and modulation.

Report providing an introduction to core concepts of GEBs, and explaining how flexible building loads can be integrated and controlled to benefit consumers, the grid, and society more broadly.

Report addressing the current state of these technologies and the challenges of adapting these to the GEB context.

Report focuseing on dynamic window and opaque envelope technologies for GEBs, including electrochromic glazing, automated attachments, and thermal storage.

Guide describing refrigeration leaks, including common leak points, how to fix them, and how to prevent them.

A article about the best practice method of installing fiber cement siding, to install flashing at the butt joints of the siding boards, rather than face caulking the butt joints afterwards.

Blog post about heat pump clothes dryers.

A website detailing initiatives on the east coast for the installation and use of high efficiency products.

Factsheet profiling a simple modification that can be made to window air-conditioners to improve their energy efficiency.

Resource that explains how water softeners work to reduce scale.

Report about measurements of three recent vintage dishwashers of very different efficiencies showing that while they are substantially more efficient than older dishwashers.

Installation tips and product suggestions for mounting hardware.

Article describing considerations for choosing a room-level air cleaner to improve indoor air quality.

FTC website explaining the usefulness of the EnergyGuide label when shopping for home appliances.

Includes several good how-to videos for anchoring furniture to different wall types

Factsheet describing the advantages and disadvantages of induction cooktops and the role they play in energy efficiency.

Article describing the correct installation of clothes dryer exhaust ducts.

PDF detailing the inspection and verification guidance for WaterSense labeled new homes including indoor and outdoor efficiency requirements, and homeowner and building management education.

Article describing the second step of a three-step process for the installation a tubular skylight, using peel-and-stick flashing tape instead of roof cement, and integrating the roof underlayment with the flashing.

Article describing how to counterflash a chimney by tucking the upper pieces of counterflashing into the chimney mortar joints and overlapping them over the various pieces of base flashing, which are nailed to the roof deck.

Report with guidance for installing windows with foam sheathing on wood-frame walls.

Article discussing indoor water management.

Article showing steps for kick out flashing at roof-wall intersection.

Article describing a technique for installing a skylight and avoiding potential water leaks with the use of a peel-and-stick (or self-adhesive) membrane under the flashing.

Factsheet with information on energy efficient pool pumps.

If your kitchen has a powerful exhaust fan, it may be pulling air down your chimney or water-heater flue.

Article describing the flashing of roofs and what to look for, targeted at home inspectors.

Siding installation guide for Ply Gem Siding Group products.

Measure Guideline describing how to assess and carry out the isolation of natural draft combustion appliances from the conditioned spaces of low-rise residential buildings.

This measure guideline provides guidance on combustion safety inspection procedures for appliances and heating equipment that use indoor air for combustion and dilution of flue gases in low-rise residential buildings.

Measure Guideline research report providing simple, long term, and durable solutions when using tapes and flashing membranes in conjunction with the exterior face of rigid polymeric foam sheathing to create the drainage plane of a wall system.

Repor ourlining testing results from a 53 home monitored sample, long-term energy use of electric resistance clothes dryers.

Report describing a lighting and smart power strip retrofit evaluation that was conducted on 56 all-electric, existing Florida homes to see how lighting and miscellaneous electric loads might be reduced.

Webpage for the CEC’s Modern Appliance Efficiency Database System