I attended the NZGBC Green Property Summit this month. Several presentations stood out. The first was by Sam Archer, who spoke immediately before the Minister of Climate Change—Sam sure put that opportunity to address the minister to good use. He was quite blunt about the missed opportunity for the building sector to contribute to our internationally agreed CO2 reduction and …
Off-grid PV systems are not carbon-friendly
It’s common for Passive House homes to have solar panels on their roofs. Every Passive House Plus or Passive House Premium project has to generate at least as much energy as its household plug load over the course of a year and in New Zealand this has been done via photo-voltaic (PV) panels. I want people to be clear that off-grid …
First US EnerPHit hotel is a beauty
What did you do on your family winter break? I took mine to a PHI-certified EnerPHit hotel, the first of its kind in the US. I really enjoyed our stay. I snuck into the all-electric kitchen (yeah, I was kicked out pretty quick) and it looked pretty standard except for the welcome absence of giant gas burners spewing particulate pollution. …
New carbon calculator integrates with PHPP
We built The Carbonator, a simple tool calculating building embodied and operational carbon emissions and it is now available so all Passive House designers can use it. Visit sustainableengineering.co.nz/thecarbonator/ for a free download of the tool, to watch a recording of the webinar and download the slide deck. Sustainable Engineering Ltd developed this spreadsheet-based tool in-house to assist with our …
PHI timber thermal bridge catalogue worth downloading
PHI has released an extensive catalogue of 600 timber frame thermal bridge calculations, plus a results file in Excel format that shows the resulting PSI values. The goal was to create a timber thermal bridge catalogue that was manufacturer independent—and which included varying construction thickness and U-values so that intermediate values could be interpolated (using the Excel file). The catalogue …
Essential to manage risks from moisture in CLT buildings
There are some advantages to being laggards in adopting new building products and methods. CLT is more common in Europe and has a longer history of use there. Damage and failures have occurred even in buildings less than five years old. It’s making insurers nervous and some are applying higher premiums to CLT constructions. Some key lessons about protecting against …
Aggregate heat loss testing (coheating) standard released
Good news: a European Standard for heat load testing has been released. I hope it will lead to more research that measures the performance gap (if any) between the heating load predicted by design stage energy modelling and as-built performance. Heat load testing is also known as co-heating testing, it’s a measure of a building’s thermal performance. The standard uses …
Wildfires also kill people through fine particulate pollution
This paper on PM2.5 pollution caused by wildfires estimates the number of Americans killed by wildfires—not the fire itself but the fine particulate pollution in the smoky air. It has implications for New Zealanders and it’s worrying. “We estimate a total of 52,480 to 55,710 premature deaths are attributable to wildland fire PM2.5 over the 11-year period with respect to …
easyPH tool aims to simplify Passive House design
A new tool for Passive House designers aims to simplify the entry of data into the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software. Called easyPH, the beta version is bundled with PHPP 10.6. If coupled with modelling in designPH, easyPH will save a lot of time and should reduce stress for new Passive House designers, particularly if you review and follow …