News & Articles

Sustainable Engineering is putting together a page on all of the New Zealand Certified Passive House Projects. We will start with projects we have certified ourselves and then add in...

Case Studies on Certified Passive House Projects – example Kowhai Passive House

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

This past March at the Passive House Conference in Munich, Germany, I had the opportunity to meet with Dieter Herz of Herz and Lang. One of the founding members of a...

16 August 2018 The Fifth Estate – Melbourne’s proposed Green Spine “could be benchmarked to Passive House standard”

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

“Heat deaths are preventable. No more excuses: we need better regulation and guidance to stop unsafe housing being built” If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail. If...

15 August 2018 The Guardian’s Bob Ward: Planning regulations overlook heat – so developers build death traps

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

This article from the Otago Daily Times is pretty shocking. It’s amazing to feel the scale of the problem when you think about one-third of all the hospital missions due...

13 August 2018 Otago Daily Times – Warm and Cosy Homes Essential for Everyone

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

As of 13 December 2017 there are six additional PHI certified climate files for NZ. These now cover all of NZ including the Chatham Islands. It is important to note...

Passive House Climate Files for NZ

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Hygrothermal modeling with WUFI Sustainable Engineering can perform hygrothermal modeling of your proposed assemblies using WUFI one or two dimensional software. Quick initial reviews of assemblies and more in-depth consulting...

WUFI

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

I hate comfort complaints. Not the complaining bit – folks are nice – but I hate the failed expectations of comfort. This past summer I had several calls from clients...

Stress test your design for Overheating

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2021

During a presentation at the South Pacific Passive House Conference in Christchurch (March 2017). I spoke on lessons learned from New Zealand projects. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned...

Glass is rocket science for high performance buildings

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Understanding of the building enclosure and the four control layers that make up the building enclosure is vital to understanding how the building enclosure will perform Enclosure The building enclosure...

Fundamental of Building Science – The Building Enclosure and the Four Control Layers

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Several Passive House projects undergoing certification have requested a way to estimate the additional R-value of an adjoining unconditioned spaces (such as garage). A good example is a garage which...

How to estimate of the R-value of unconditioned spaces

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Summary The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) requires that energy losses from Domestic Hot Water (DHW) Storage tanks be entered as Watts per degree Kelvin (W/K) rather than the more...

DHW Tanks – W/K from kWh/day

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

Summary Several Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) systems available have HRV performance data for the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) but do not have Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) performance data. Knowing...

How to scale HRV data to ERV for use in Passive House Planning Package

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

PH certification criteria requires that a minimum surface temperature be achieved. Steps: 1. Determine the exterior temperature to use – call this the Hygiene External Temperature. This temperature can be...

Hygiene Criterion applied to a thermal bridge

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

“It is feasible for people in government to ensure the next generation of children has more choice.Building standards need an overhaul. We are lagging behind other similar countries.Mr Twyford should...

05 July 2018 Opinion’s Jessica Berentson-Shaw: KiwiBuild risks embedding wealth and housing inequalities

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2019

In this article, Clare Parry from the Australian Passive House Association points out how it’s really a simplicity introduced by Passive House that allows these homes to easily meet zero-energy...

General Notes

03 July 2018 Australian Passive House Association: A zero-energy home is not as challenging as you might think, with the right toolkit

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2018

I met Dr Pierse at University of Otago’s Public Health Summer School on the day of the release of the World Health Organisation’s International Housing & Health Guidelines (25 February...

06 June 2018 Stuff Piers Fuller: A tenth of New Zealand houses not fit to live in, health researcher says

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2019

I think the epic quote from this article could be paraphrased as “Your brand new home might still be cold, damp, and bad for your health”. I think that’s a...

27 May 2018 Wanganui Chronicle – Home is where the heart(and the heat) is by Rachel Rose

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026