I used to work in HVAC. I remember we had a small cold room that was struggling to maintain temperature, as in, design was supposed to be 0°F but it couldn't get below 36°F. There was a large hole in the box that was undoubtedly the cause of the problem, so I asked the installer how they accounted for that. "Oh, I doubled the infiltration value." When I tried calculating the actual losses it was way, way higher than the infiltration value. Like, the room needed someting like 3-4 times its total refrigeration capacity to reach target with a giant fucking hole in the box.

No idea who thought putting a giant hole in the box was a good idea.

I work in building science. It's obscene how little actual design and quality control goes into residential homes.

The typical design is just one step above being illegal, and people are often scared off of doing anything more than that by the threat of increased cost. However, they don't realize that they pay for it either way; either on their mortgage, or on utilities. Only one of those you can actually own in the end.

I loved that Technology Connections video.

Technology connections did a video on this, it's actually insane how much wastage there is

Talking about energy wastage, next time you're walking around commercial buildings, pay attention to how many lights are on during the middle of the day.

Drove by a closed car lot the other day. The place has been abandoned for months. Weeds growing up everywhere. The entire lot is fenced off getting ready for demolition.
The only building on the lot is small and completely surrounded by glass walls, so you can see right through it. The red neon around the outside of the building is still on 24 hours.

Ugh. Yup.

I learned that after buying my house. My furnace is 3x what my house needs and is expected to be an expensive repair someday.