Passive House social housing in New York City is taking off, according to this Guardian feature story. Two things stand out: the extent of the uptake (dozens of affordable Passive House developments are currently underway throughout the city) and the way developers and occupants are describing the benefits. It’s great language I will remember when I’m describing the “why” of …
Evaluating embodied carbon of solar panels
Elementa Consulting has released a very easy to follow report on a very complex topic: how good are PV panels and what matters when you consider their embodied carbon? The report is well worth reading. To me the two most important charts are Figure 1 (above), which shows that although PV panels start with a high embodied carbon, as they …
Time for deep retrofits
MBIE’s Building for Climate Change programme is going to drive greater energy efficiency in new buildings. Among other things, it will introduce actual performance modeling for New Zealand buildings. This is a huge step forward. However, we also urgently need to improve our existing buildings. Let’s talk retrofits. Retrofit solutions to existing homes are needed. We need to improve insulation, …
Luggate Hall delayed
It’s a shame to hear about delays in construction to Luggate Hall but supply chain issues are a huge issue across the industry. Delays in shipping the Passive House certified windows from Europe were cited as the cause in a Queenstown Lakes District Council media release. This is going to be a great project: New Zealand’s first community building that …
Zero-energy building sector vital to addressing climate change
Buildings have a big role in addressing climate change. This nice and short technical paper shows how reducing consumption is the only way to address climate change that does not demand large negative carbon sinks. Diana Ürge-Vorsatz is one of the co-authors and the paper includes discussion about her concept of the “lock-in effect” that I have found so useful. …
Finally, NZ new homes are shrinking
Happy news in this thoughtful article from Stuff about why the average new dwelling is getting smaller in New Zealand. (How it’s getting smaller is obvious: smaller stand-alone homes but mostly it’s the growing numbers of townhouses and apartments that is lowering the average. I’d be interested to see the figure for stand-alone houses only.) It is of course section …
What’s it like? Passive House homeowners tell
Another in-depth article from the Stuff network about Passive House, that talks to people about their experience living in a (mostly certified) Passive House. It gets into the thorny cost premium issue too. I was especially pleased to see Sian Taylor’s project receive some more coverage. Shifting her young family from a typical Queenstown house (she reports ice on the …
Better school buildings get closer
Architect—and newly graduated PH designer—Murray Robertson wrote a really insightful piece about his experience designing a mass timber school building to the Passive House standard. Things were looking good: “We found for a typical mid-size school building that all that was required, apart from careful modelling and design, was better-performing windows, a relatively inexpensive airtightness layer, and a fresh air …
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 …