This article is a follow-up to an article published in the July issue of The Informer, and was contributed by Henri Fennell, a building envelope specialist and architect from North Thetford, VT.  Henri has over forty years of experience in energy conservation design, products, and services, and was one of the featured presenters at our […]

Tips for Building a Healthy, Energy-Efficient Home The following recommendations are excerpted from the Maine Indoor Air Quality Council’s full “Checklist for New Residential Construction”, which is available for free on  this website at:  https://maineindoorair.org/iaq-checklist-for-new-residential-construction/ Building a new home is a big, complex project.  The purpose of this article is to highlight the most critical construction […]

Submitted by MIAQC Member Kris Anderson.  Kris is a professional engineer and president of K.G. Anderson, an engineering and consulting firm from Bath, Maine specializing in hands-on whole building and building-systems problem-solving.   Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and seem to not be connecting? In reality both of you are speaking about […]

This article was contributed by Henri Fennell, a building envelope specialist and architect from North Thetford, VT with over forty years of experience in energy conservation design, products, and services. Henri was one of the featured presenters at our recent IAQ & Energy 2018 Conference.  We encourage Informer readers to visit Henri’s website for more […]

Last Fall, Bob Stilwell, who served as the Director of the Maine State Radon Section for close to 30 years and who has essentially personified the state’s radon initiatives, left the radon program for another position within the Department. Bob’s departure, followed by other unexpected staffing changes, left many in the public and professional community […]

This article was written by executive director Christine Crocker for publication in the March 2018 issue of Green & Healthy Maine Homes magazine.  Through-wall energy recovery ventilation (ERV) units are relative newcomers to the residential ventilation and high performance building arena, offering a practical ventilation solution when full size units aren’t an option.  The units […]

How the Humble Checklist Can Improve School Indoor Air Quality Written by Christine G. Crocker, Executive Director, Maine Indoor Air Quality Council, Augusta, ME and Ellen Tohn, Principal, Tohn Environmental Strategies, Wayland, MA We all use checklists.  Shopping lists, to-do lists, wish lists—checklists are a simple tool used every day to help us both organize […]

If you need a new water heater and your basement is somewhat humid and musty, you might consider a heat pump water heater to solve two problems: heating the water and conditioning the air. Heat pump water heaters may sound complex, but they operate just like your refrigerator in reverse. The refrigerator takes heat out […]

Maine has an environment that is somewhat difficult in which to design an HVAC system and building envelope. Temperatures can swing wildly within 24 hours causing the HVAC system to cycle from heating at night, to economizer cooling (using outside air to cool), to mechanical cooling. So the interior environment can see a variable amount […]