Martin Holladay

Editor Martin Holladay has worked as a roofer, remodeler, builder, and plumbing wholesale counterperson. He built his first passive solar house in northern Vermont in 1974, and has lived off the grid since 1975. In 1980, Holladay bought his first photovoltaic module, which is still producing electricity after all these years.

After the 1988 Armenian earthquake, Holladay spent 18 months in the mountains of northern Armenia, where he helped build medical clinics and housing. In the 1990s, he worked for four years as a project manager for a nonprofit developer of low-income housing.

In 1999, Holladay accepted a position as associate editor at the Journal of Light Construction, and became editor of Energy Design Update in 2002.

Holladay joined the GreenBuildingAdvisor.com team in November 2008. His Musings of an Energy Nerd blog is among the most popular of GBA blogs.

Recent Articles

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  Vocabulary Disputes that Matter

  We should strive to use words with precision, especially when precision is required to avoid ambiguity

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  European vs. U.S.–Manufactured Windows

  It's impossible to compare European window U-factors to American window U-factors

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  Green Building Has Changed

  Over the last 15 years, our understanding of green building has evolved

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  What Does AI Know About Green Building?

  We asked two artifical intelligence programs to answer some common high-performance building questions. Here's how they did . . .

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  Santa Goes Green

  Martin's 2022 Christmas poem

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  Implementing Energy-Saving Advice Isn’t Always Easy

  Learning to live with imperfection

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  Allison Bailes Publishes a Book

  This reference work deserves to be on the shelf of every residential designer and builder

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  A Curb For Your Metal Chimney

  Tips for flashing chimney penetrations

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  Electricians, Get Ready!

  For the next decade, there’s going to be more work than you can handle

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  Musings of an Energy Nerd

  In Some States, PV is Getting Cheaper Than the Grid

  A rooftop solar company hopes to build a microgrid that will provide residential electricity at a lower cost than the grid