Looking for insulation in the purchase of a new home is an excellent idea and looking for bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans is even more critical. Unfortunately this is not sufficient as we are seeing brand new homes that clearly meet all of these recommendations and are still having mould issues. We would suggest having continuous mechanical ventilation with a …
Luggate Hall is the is a community hub in Queenstown that needs to be replaced due to seismic strengthening. The community has pulled together a business case plan through the Government’s better business model to pursue Certified Passive House for that community hall in order to capture the thermal comfort, health & the low energy ongoing energy cost benefits. Once …
A fairly common question during the certification process is ‘What sort of construction documentation is required for a certified passive house?’ Required documentation for a Certified Passive House (Passivhaus) or PHI Low Energy Building is that sufficient to fully check the energy model and design quality and assure that the building was built as per the design. That sort of …
Beautiful English Passive House social housing apartments for the elderly: “18 apartments split into three blocks totalling 1057 sqm treated floor area. The larger block is comprised of 14 one-bedroom apartments at 55 sqm each, while the two identical smaller buildings each contain two two-bed apartments at 68 sqm each.” Unlike most project descriptions, this article has a refreshingly frank …
This report reviewed detailed test measurements for air tightness and heating loads for passive houses and non-passive houses designed to meet an energy target. From this data the Passive Houses (Passivhaus in the UK) predicted performance matched quite closely to the measurements compared to other non-passive house designed buildings. “Most of the homes were fitted with mechanical ventilation with heat …
The Building Enclosure and the Four Control Layers 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 is what separates the inside environment from the outside ‘natural’ environment. This includes everything from the paint on the outside of …
“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 be informed by open source energy-efficient housing systems like the passive house standard.It is a system that lends itself to prefabrication on a large scale, and has been used in …
“We watched how they made plans and decisions and accessed information relative to what was happening to see if they could be strategic in their thinking and we found really dramatic effects even from minor changes to the indoor environment,” Allen said. When developers build building they are focused on what they can rent them for; and they should be …
This article features our Director, Jason Quinn, there was a lot to condense into this article. The one additional comment he wishes had made it into the article was that most new homes built in New Zealand to the current building code are unhealthy due to inadequate ventilation resulting high moisture levels and often times mold. Yes, That’s a brand …
