If you design building assemblies you need to make the time to read this new publication. Thermal bypass—the air movement through and around insulation—has a very big impact on building performance. In the High-Performance Construction Details Handbook, I noted that thermal bypass can reduce the thermal performance of wall assemblies by 30% or more. The Passivhaus Trust in the UK …
Energy modelling at heart of Passive House
Often when people talk about Passive House, they’ll focus on those things they can see and touch, like triple-pane windows or mechanical ventilation. But the core of the Passive House methodology is the part you can’t see: it’s the thermal energy model. That modelling is how the design team can make sure this young couple’s first home is going to …
Leaky building crisis spreads to Australia
Here’s a detailed but accessible write up about leaky homes that takes an international perspective. Written by Australian lawyers who specialise in construction law, it considers the risks emerging for Australia and compares it to the Canadian and New Zealand experience. Lawyer Kim Lovegrove says increasing numbers of leaky apartments are coming to light in Australia. He notes that in …
PHPP accuracy proven by comparison to other tools
PHPP matches quite well for monthly heating and cooling energy demand when compared to lots of dynamic energy modelling software tools. And it should, as the equations/methods in PHPP have been developed (and simplified) by reference to many dynamic simulations. The bar graph comparing the monthly heating and cooling energy demand has the PHPP as the rightmost bar. Note that …
Calculating building system shutdowns in PHPP
It’s common for some non-residential buildings to be unoccupied for periods of time, during which the ventilation and conditioning is turned off. Schools and office buildings are common examples; think of after school hours each day or weekends where heating/cooling may be on only for 6 hours each day. In such circumstances, turning off ventilation and conditioning during the unoccupied …
World’s biggest Passive House office rises in Boston
Sometimes I take a look to see what’s going on in Massachusetts, just for old times sake. And look at this: the Winthrop Center is a Boston high-rise that will be the largest Passive House office building in the world. It’s a 211m high mixed-use tower with 75,000m2 of office space and 317 luxury residences, among other facilities. I’ve worked on …
Remove regulators’ liability and we might see more innovation in the building sector
Writing for The Spinoff recently, NZGBC head Andrew Eagles takes to task the Commerce Commission’s findings into competition in the residential building supplies market. “Not only does our industry suffer from a reliance on the ‘tried and tested’, but this conservativism is backed by a risk structure that incentivises our building officials to be wary of anything new. Products commonplace …
Make comfort a goal of any renovation
“Yeah, our old housing stock is terrible, but modern homes are all good.” It’s disheartening how often I hear this, about newly built homes constructed to only just meet the legal minimum of the NZ Building Code. It’s not true. And expensive retrofits can be miserable too, unless they have been designed (and modelled) to ensure comfort. Steve Hughes, from …
(Thermally) break that steel
Graeme Jacobs is the Director at Jacobs & Munro Architects Limited and he recently posted about an elegant solution his firm sourced in order to create a thermal break in a steel ridge. The walls and roof in this project are Formance SIP and the steel ridge beam is fully inside of the thermal envelope (as I’d recommend) … except …