If you’re working on Homestar V5 projects, this free webinar is for you. (It’s also ideal for all those newly qualified Passive House designers!) Sustainable Engineering’s Jason Quinn is teaching an introduction to thermal bridge modelling on 23 February. Jason is the author of PHINZ’s High-Performance Construction Details Handbook: he knows thermal bridges inside and out. The hour-long lunchtime webinar …
New thermal performance data for NZ timber window profiles
Consulting with building component manufacturers to help them make good products even better is a favourite activity for the Sustainable Engineering team. Lunds Joinery, a highly-regarded family-owned company in Timaru, approached us to do some window calculations for their standard timber profiles. Lunds incorporated the fRSI calculations and Uf data into a new publication, the LJT Timber Window Guide, which …
Airtightness results in NZ PH builds keep improving
The Leith Valley Passive House in Dunedin is New Zealand’s newest certified Passive House Plus home and can boast of an extraordinary blower door test result: 0.17 air changes per house (ACH) as measured by the final blower door test. Builder Wayne Dyet (WD Homes) is a competitive man with an amazing eye for detail and he’s determined to construct …
Westpac get behind Raglan PH build
An in-depth Passive House case study … from a major bank? Good to see Westpac recognising the value of Passive House certification and providing finance for this Raglan project. This off-grid Passive House home is for owner/builders Toby and Catriona Tilsley and their two young kids. The Tilsleys run a sustainable building company, Craft Homes. Their new home in Raglan …
More Passive House certifiers in NZ
Jason Quinn of Sustainable Engineering Ltd has been New Zealand’s sole Passive House certifier for five years but he’s no longer alone in the job. Toby Brooke and Sara Wareing were confirmed last Friday by PHI as accredited Passive House certifiers. Both work for Sustainable Engineering. Sara has a Masters degree in Building Science from Victoria University of Wellington, while …
A builder’s perspective on warm, dry, energy-efficient homes
Last year, a builder in the South Island called up Jason Quinn, Sustainable Engineering’s founding director, and asked to interview him. Much later, a story showed up on Achipro. It rambles a bit but has some good anecdotes and a punchy opening proposition: “The main stumbling block [to building a home that is genuinely warm, dry and energy-efficient], as primitive …
It’s not rocket science: actually it’s harder
This great profile of Sustainable Engineering’s founding director delivers a nice intro to Passive House—while also telling the story of how a campervan trip around New Zealand saw a NASA rocket scientist emigrate here and embark on a big career change. Building science is actually more challenging than rocket science, reckons Jason Quinn. This profile was written by Mas, a …
Cheaper. Better. Just do it.
Sydney’s first PH built for less than an equivalent Code house A fantastic report on the cost premium for building a Passive House has been released by Sydney architect Andy Marlow. This is an important piece of research and I urge you to download and read it. Every Passive House professional hears the question, “But how much more will it …
Heat pumps a great choice for high-performance homes
Heat pumps are suitable for every climate zone in New Zealand, even the coldest, and they are the most efficient source of heating and cooling. Don’t buy crappy ones. New labelling makes it easier to compare models. We always recommend heat pumps in our building designs or other projects we consult on. For single family homes, it’s usually just one …