UNDERSTAND IT. CALCULATE IT. PLAN IT.
A house that works.
A plan you understand.
How much insulation? How deep a pipe? Will the well keep up? Practical answers, worked examples and calculators for the systems your home depends on.
What are you working on?
Find the cause, then compare the improvement.
Check source, yield and treatment in order.
Start with essential loads and autonomy.
BROWSE BY HOME SYSTEM
Nine connected topics. One practical library.
Open a topic to see its explanations and calculators together, in a useful working order.
Insulation
Find heat losses, compare insulation and avoid trapping moisture inside a wall.
Frost & ground
Separate frost protection, pipe cover and structural foundation design before digging.
Wells & water
Read well logs, understand drawdown and turn flow measurements into pump and storage questions.
Water treatment
Choose stages from measured contaminants, treatment goals and required flow.
Wastewater
Understand the tank, soil treatment area, hydraulic load and maintenance obligations.
Independent energy
Separate energy, peak power and autonomy before sizing solar, batteries and backup.
Construction
Separate drawing dimensions, geometric volume, allowance and supplier constraints.
Electrical power
Turn load power into current, voltage drop and runtime without treating a calculator as a cable design.
Heating
Compare load and equipment at matching temperatures, plan auxiliary heat and test the installed system.
YOUR FIELD KIT
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THE HOME SYSTEMS LIBRARY
Six systems. Connected decisions.
Each guide explains what to measure, how to use the numbers and what to check before buying or building.
A warmer house starts with the right diagnosis.
Find heat losses, compare insulation and avoid trapping moisture inside a wall.
How deep should pipes and foundations go?
Separate frost protection, pipe cover and structural foundation design before digging.
Will a well supply the water your home needs?
Read well logs, understand drawdown and turn flow measurements into pump and storage questions.
Which water filters do you actually need?
Choose stages from measured contaminants, treatment goals and required flow.
Plan a septic system around the site.
Understand the tank, soil treatment area, hydraulic load and maintenance obligations.
Build a power plan that survives a cloudy week.
Separate energy, peak power and autonomy before sizing solar, batteries and backup.
Why does water collect on cold windows and walls?
Use temperature, humidity and dew point to distinguish condensation from other moisture problems.
How much rainwater can your roof collect?
Estimate catchment yield, understand storage limits and keep rainwater separate from drinking water.
Prepare the house before the first hard freeze.
Walk through exposed water systems, heating dependencies and outage actions while there is time to fix them.
Choose backup power around the loads that must run.
Understand running power, motor starts, safe placement and the connection to the house.
Choose a water pipe size without guessing
Connect fixture demand, internal diameter, velocity, pressure loss and pump performance.
Plan domestic hot water as an energy system
Estimate heating energy, then account for peak demand, recovery, storage and safety.
Plan how an off-grid battery gets recharged
Connect usable deficit, charger power, source limits, losses and recovery time.
Ventilate an airtight home without losing control of heat
Separate required fresh air, local exhaust, infiltration and heat recovery.
Protect exposed pipes before relying on heat trace
Reduce exposure, insulate correctly, choose controls and plan for a power failure.
Understand pressure, head and flow in a private water system
Measure static and dynamic pressure, include elevation and read the pump at its operating point.
Plan a gravity drain from elevations, not appearances
Turn a required grade into invert levels while protecting cover, access and the downstream system.
Read a private-well water test before choosing treatment
Check the sample, units, detection limits and health context before comparing equipment.
Maintain a home water-treatment train as one system
Track flow, pressure, capacity, sanitation and verification across every treatment stage.
Estimate a concrete order without hiding the assumptions
Separate drawing dimensions, geometric volume, allowance and supplier constraints.
Plan trench quantities without treating excavation as a safe shape
Estimate spoil while keeping utilities, collapse protection, water and access as separate decisions.
Size the roof-drainage path from rainfall to safe discharge
Connect roof area and design intensity to gutters, outlets, downpipes and foundation drainage.
Plan the low-voltage DC path from battery to inverter
Turn load power into current, voltage drop and runtime without treating a calculator as a cable design.
Size a heat pump from the building load and cold-weather capacity
Compare load and equipment at matching temperatures, plan auxiliary heat and test the installed system.
Plan off-grid energy through several low-sun days
Build a period energy balance, preserve battery reserve and define when backup generation starts.
Turn frost requirements into foundation levels on site
Separate the local frost criterion, structural bearing level, final grade and excavation level before digging.
YOUR CALCULATION BENCH
Put numbers to the next decision.
Assembly heat loss
Compare heat flow through a wall, roof or window area.
Pipe cover to trench depth
Convert an established pipe-cover requirement into a trench section.
Well drawdown & specific capacity
Interpret water levels from a recorded pumping test.
Pump head & electrical power
Combine lift, delivery pressure and friction in a first-pass pump calculation.
Solar array energy balance
Estimate DC array size from daily energy and a monthly solar assumption.
Battery autonomy
Convert a daily load into nominal battery capacity with stated losses.
KNOW WHAT THE NUMBER MEANS
Useful estimates come with their assumptions.
A pipe-depth calculation starts with your local cover requirement. A battery calculation starts with your loads. The guides help you collect the right inputs and understand the limits.
See the frost-depth example