Retrofitting airtightness into the Feisty Goat student flat

A recent TVNZ Breakfast piece highlighted a fantastic retrofit project by the AeroBarrier team on the “Feisty Goat”, a 145-year-old student flat in Dunedin. Despite technically meeting Healthy Homes standards,...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2026

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Passive House Compared Across Climates

US study shows Passive House cuts building energy use in half across all climate zones A large US study by RDH for The Passive House Network confirms what building science...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2026

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Skip the service upgrade: power efficient design for electric homes

On a recent project, a builder asked if we needed to upgrade the site’s existing electrical supply for a larger, all-electric home. The first reaction in our industry is to...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2026

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Keeping cool in summer without air conditioning: lessons from a Passive House retrofit

A recent BBC profile on architect Marion Baeli’s retrofitted 1960s home in London shows how high-performance design handles extreme heat without active cooling. During a 35°C heatwave, her home stayed...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2026

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Retrofitting a modernist concrete exoskeleton to ‘near’ Passive House

Retrofitting a heritage-listed modernist building with a precast concrete exoskeleton is about as tough as thermal envelope design gets. The recent “near-passive” retrofit of Gordon Bunshaft’s 1964 Banque Lambert in...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2026

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Stop burning stuff inside your home: electric hobs cut asthma attacks

We talk a lot about phasing out gas in New Zealand homes to hit carbon targets or slash energy bills (or save it for industrial use), but the real headline...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2026

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Mould behind the fibreglass

I’m often asked to look at insulating external wall assemblies where the design team sometimes the construction team wants to strap and line the inside of a concrete or tilt-slab...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2026

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Half of Kiwi homes still aren’t warm enough

I often hear from designers and builders that New Zealand homes are plenty warm these days. That is factually not true and I think they are saying it out of...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2026

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Highlights from the 2026 Thrive Australian Passivhaus Conference

The THRIVE 2026 Australian Passivhaus Conference in Melbourne last week was great here are my highlights. Well worth nipping across the ditch for two days. I’d set up (and Clare...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2026

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Reframing Passive House as decent housing

I’m currently deep in the weeds writing my latest book, Deep Energy Retrofit Handbook for New Zealand, and I keep finding myself re-reading a brilliant document released in April 2024:...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2026

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Parka Wrap wins a 2026 PHI Component Award for window retrofits

Good news: Parka Wrap has just picked up a 2026 Passive House Institute Component Award for their Optimised Window Retrofit Solution. Awesome to see an EnerPHit retrofit solution recognized from...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2026

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High Performance Renovations: My latest chat on the ProClima podcast EP38

I recently sat down with Simon Cator on the ProClima podcast to talk about how we can realistically scale up deep energy retrofits across New Zealand. Heaps to do to...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2026

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How to talk to clients about Passive House: lessons from mainstream media

It is awesome to see such an in-depth article in a non-construction industry magazine like Australian House & Garden. The technical geek in me is sad they conflated total energy...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: May 2026

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Catching up at THRIVE in Melbourne and PHINZ in Auckland

Let’s catch up this conference season. I’ll be heading to the Passivhaus THRIVE conference in Melbourne (June 25-26) and the PHINZ conference in Auckland (July 30-31), and I’m especially keen...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: May 2026

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Estimating energy-efficient HVAC system costs for New Zealand homes

I’m often asked what an energy-efficient, low-emissions HVAC system actually costs to install here in New Zealand. The short answer is: we don’t have enough local data. But looking at...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Apr 2026

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Managing moisture in mass timber: Please don’t leave it in the rain

Mass timber buildings are popping up everywhere in New Zealand and Australia, and for good reason. Substituting concrete and steel with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) saves on embodied carbon and offers...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Apr 2026

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How long do our houses actually last? The 90-year reality

Retrofitting for performance only makes sense financially, at least when you’re already renewing a building element. Ripping off perfectly good cladding to add insulation is a tough sell, but doing...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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EnerPHit vs the ‘lite’ alternatives

I’ve been deep in the weeds working on the Deep Energy Retrofit Guide for New Zealand, and naturally, that means looking overseas for data we simply don’t have here yet....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2026

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