When the mercury drops below zero and you find yourself wrestling with a gear selector that feels like it is stuck in molasses, your first instinct is to blame the gearbox. While it is true that fluid viscosity is the…
The Thermal Transmission: Why Your Home is Hunting for Equilibrium In the automotive world, when your transmission hunts for gears while using cruise control, it is a sign that the engine is struggling to match the power output to the…
In the world of high-performance mechanics, when your transmission hesitates while passing on the highway, you know the power transfer is failing. In the architectural world, we deal with a different kind of transmission: thermal transmission. If your home’s glazing…
In the world of high-stakes glazing and structural glass, we often see a parallel between the mechanical integrity of a vehicle and the thermal envelope of a building. Just as a homeowner might be told they need to replace a…
As a Master Glazier with a quarter-century in the trade, I have learned that the difference between a high-performance building envelope and a mold-infested disaster is often measured in millimeters. Whether we are talking about the rough opening of a…
The Acoustic Physics of a Failing Envelope When you sit in your driver’s seat and hear a high-pitched whistle during your morning commute, your mind likely jumps to a car service appointment or perhaps the dread of a looming engine…
The Science of the Cold Morning Chill When you wake up on a sub-zero morning and feel that unmistakable phantom breeze near your bedroom window, you are not just experiencing a draft; you are witnessing a failure of thermal physics.…
