Jason Quinn reported back from the 23rd International Passive House Conference: “Technical PH people used to talk about saving energy—but at the conference, I kept hearing about saving carbon. That’s a big shift. The conference was as technically awesome as ever but everything in China scaled up. There was the conference dinner (2000 people and a full orchestra) and the …
29 August 2019 NZ Herald’s Anne Gibson: Why a Henderson mother won $13k from her landlords: 22 separate issues at rental property
“A house with leaking and damaged gutters, rotting window frames, illegal stairs, a sagging and mouldy ceiling, rotting weatherboards, a rotten toilet floor and exposed electrical board have earned a stiff penalty for the landlords who rented it out.” “Landlords Ross and Sally Craigie must pay tenant Bjana Thompson $13,020.44 for breaching the Residential Tenancies Act by failing to maintain …
Oppose NASH as AS for E2 as it doesn’t cover external insulation
And putting batts between light steel framing is not a good option as discussed below. https://www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/building-code-update-consultation-november-2019 The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found that thermal bridging in a wood-framed wall lowers the effectiveness of cavity insulation by 10%, but performance drops a whopping 55% in a wall framed with steel. https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-005-a-bridge-too-far “But from a hygrothermal standpoint, I can only add …
27 August 2019 The Fifth Estate’s Poppy Johnston: NSW gets its first Certified Passive House homes
Congratulations to Joe Mercieca of Blue Eco Homes for Sapphire Passive House in the Blue Mountains and Andy Marlow of Envirotecture for the Thornleigh house. The article states that “The certification of these two buildings brings the total number of Passive House Certified buildings in Australia to 18. ” with a “a pipeline of hundreds of Passive House buildings in various …
19 August 2019 BMJ Journals: Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study
Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study Bottom line for the Wellington Region alone 1710 hospitalizations per year for children under 2 years old would be prevented if all housing were free from damp and mould!! “This paper presents the largest ever case–control study of the association between housing quality and hospital …
19 August 2019 SunLive: Crank up the heat on someone’s winter
Yes sometimes even sick folks living in cold homes don’t realize how it impacts their health. “Two weeks ago, the temperature dropped to zero or one degrees inland where a woman with cancer was living. Her nights were a struggle, her breathing was laboured and each day she woke up exhausted. Healthy Homes chatted with her about the importance of …
15 August 2019 News Hub’s Mel Logan & Dan Satherley: Damp, mouldy homes blamed for high rate of kids with respiratory infections
1600 extra death per year 20% of serious respiratory infections prevented. Seems like warm dry healthy homes would cheaper than what we do now. Content by News Hub.
AIRAH Ecolibruium August 2019 Feature
One of our newsletter articles was published in AIRAH magazine. AIRAH Ecolibruium August 2019 https://www.airah.org.au/ EcoLibrium/2019/Ecolibrium_August_2019.aspx When asked where he learned this Jason pointed out it was from Joe Lstiburek in Westford Massachusetts way back in 2014 and from Kara Rosemeier in 2012 but with less swearing. Read more here.
13 August 2019 Voxy: Energy company looks at health effects of cold homes
“The WHO report found that cold indoor temperatures have been associated with increased blood pressure, asthma symptoms and poor mental health. Cold homes contribute to increases in deaths and disease. It is estimated that in New Zealand 1600 additional people die each winter, with respiratory and cardiovascular disease highly prevalent in these alarming statistics. Elderly people, children and those with …