HOUSE CALLS — October 2017
46
House Calls is a new feature column in Healthy Indoors
Magazine, which focuses on building science, energy
efficiency, and building performance issues.
Allison Bailes, III, Ph.D., Energy Vanguard, LLC,
Decatur, GA. Dr. Bailes has a PhD in physics from the
University of Florida. After starting off on the traditional
academic path of teaching, he found a way to use his
interest in energy and the environment, as well as his
love for buildings, especially homes. After finishing
the construction of his own green home in 2003, he
became a home energy rater, and later founded Energy
Vanguard in 2008.
Energy Vanguard is more about teaching and less
about fixing, although they do offer HVAC design
services. It's focused more on the big picture—creat-
ing markets, spreading the word (such as for Energy
Efficient Mortgages), expanding networks—and less on
individual components. The company is on the forefront
of change—the vanguard—in the way we see and use
energy in our homes.
For more information, visit https://energyvanguard.com.
And it hadn't even rained in a while when I visited.
Another way water gets up against the foundation walls
is from a roof without gutters, downspouts that don't move
the water away from the house, or rain water in a yard that
slopes toward the house. I had an interesting water mys-
tery to solve in one crawl space I encapsulated, and the
source turned out to be one of those three.
4. Foundation vents in crawl space walls
Finally, we have the vents in the crawl space walls as a
source of moisture. Yes, it's true. The idea behind those
vents was to dry out the crawl space, but they actually do
the opposite, at least in the summer. Here in the South-
east, we have this stuff in the air called water vapor.
When outdoor air comes through those crawl space
vents, it actually raises the relative humidity in the crawl
space. It's true! If you don't believe my word, see what the
psychrometric chart has to say about crawl space vents.
How to have a dry crawl space
If you have a crawl space and want it to be nice and dry,
encapsulation is the way to go. (I'm not a contractor any-
more and Energy Vanguard doesn't do this, but a lot of
home performance contractors do.) You cover the ground,
the foundation walls, and the crawl space vents to stop
those three sources from wetting your crawl space.
Then you may need to do something about the crawl
space air, too.
After getting it encapsulated, you have a crawl space
that's beautiful, dry, and, if it's done right, your indoor air
quality should improve. Just ask my friend Perry.
i
