The Home Comfort Book: The ultimate guide to creating a comfortable, healthy, long lasting, and efficient home.

This is a review by an enterprising consumer (not contractor) looking to electrify my house at a time that the HVAC and water heaters, both gas, are over 20 years old. So better get it done before they do go out.That said, I want to do it right, and this book is key to understanding that. You would think (before reading the book) that you just swap out your AC unit(s) with similarly sized heat pumps, yank the furnace, and you are good. So very very wrong, mainly because, as you learn, the stuff probably wasn't sized correctly in the first place.Without basically re-writing the book for you, Nate Adams drives home the key issues, the sequence in which things need to be done, and the main traps to look out for/what to focus on. It goes like this:1. Get a blower door test to evaluate how leaky your crappy house is.2. Pay/DIY to fix all the stupid stuff no one thought of before.3. Re-test your blower door. Hopefully it fixed it (he gives target numbers to reach). If not, go back to #2 and keep cycling.4. Perhaps add some insulation, but not nearly as important as the leaking. Obv each house is different, but air sealing is the key. He even says priorities 1-3 are air seal, air seal, and air seal. And then backs up why.5. NOW you can properly size your HVAC, and... this is key... NOT OVERSIZE IT. It turns out, counter-intuitively, that if you oversize stuff, it works WORSE, not better. Again, he provides the factual basis for this.All this is an easy five stars. I pull off a star to four stars for the following reason: he states, convincingly, that the top three priorities after a blower door are air seal, air seal, and air seal. Great. I'm a believer. But then... there is no chapter on air sealing. Yeah, every house is different, but where is the section on sealing recessed lights (two ways: a box over it in the attic, or a caulked LED insert)? What about fireplace flues Door jams? Electrical outlets? Plumbing pass throughs? There is SOME info in there on knee walls and tops of interior walls, but there should at least be a checklist with some probability, and then perhaps links to youtube videos that others have done on each of these.So now we're down to four stars, but I give a half star (which rounds to five) because as the buyer of the book, you are entitled to free upgrades, and he is working on that part! So you WILL get that info, just not yet. The frustrating part is I am not going to wait on my project until the book is complete, so some initial link to info should get done in a draft form.Overall I recommend the buy. You need to know the WHY for what you need to do, and in which order. The price of the book is inconsequential compared to your project.

Great book for the homeowner, hvac or insulation contractor, and anyone with comfort concerns. I'm a hvac contractor with over 23 years experience and this book opened my eyes to questions that couldn't previously be answered, why is why we recommend it to homeowners. It helps to explain many comfort & health related issues and how to best correct them. If you're interested in fixing your own home's comfort & health needs, this is a great way to educate yourself and either do some/much of the work yourself or be able to ensure you're hiring the right contractor(s). Great job Nate!

This book is very informative, easy to read, and clearly identifies a process to achieving a high-performance home. I am an energy efficiency consultant and this book taught me quite a bit about building science and was a breath of fresh air compared to technical manuals and dry reading materials that are common regarding this topic. The data-driven solutions, willingness to experiment, follow up, and admit failures are the essence of why this book is useful and educational. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in improving their home comfort and performance, those interested in building science, or getting a better understanding of how a home works.

Absolutely amazing book! So much information and all of it is broken down in a way that it is understandable.

Definitely THE book you need to have on your desk and on your night table because you will read it once, twice... and come back again and again.It's amazingly well documented and explained as you wish all your teachers could have been.I couldn't have only the ebook version because I need to see this book as part of my work environment with my computer and my notepad.

As a building science professional the book explains in simple metaphors of technical/geeky stuff that we can't normally touch, see or understand, but we all feel the results that is known as COMFORT or the lack off. You will learn how a house/building works to improve comfort, health and energy efficiency.

I highly recommend this booK. It's very well illustrated and is easy to read. If you are remodeling a house or wishing you could fix issues with your house, buy this book first. It could save you thousands of dollars in wasted effort by not doing the wrong thing with your money!

Did not love this book. Basically says to go hire a professional to get an estimate in order to seal up your entire house. Then go buy energy efficient light bulbs. Not a lot of information. Lots of pictures and graphs and quick tips but not a ton of immediate ideas.

Very understandable. Great information, easy to read. This book really helps to understand how home comfort works. Good job Nate!