Presentations by Jess Berentson-Shaw from The Workshop were a highlight of this and previous year’s PHINZ conferences. She offers science-based advice on how the Passive House community can most effectively influence the adoption of a building standard that creates warm healthy buildings and solves a lot of social problems. In 2019, when she first delivered a keynote address, I’d just …
Why new H1 requirements impact rammed earth construction
The improvements introduced in 2023 to the H1 Energy Efficiency requirements of the New Zealand Building Code have implications for those wishing to build their homes from some natural building materials, in particular rammed earth. Rammed earth has featured in some high-profile architectural builds in recent years, like the NZIA 2023 award winner in Otago pictured above. Rammed earth has …
PHINZ conference highlights solutions to NZ winter energy problem
PHINZ’s annual conference has just finished in Wellington—it was a great weekend and a welcome opportunity to catch up with colleagues-friends. The programme dived deeply into carbon emissions and how to slash them—embodied as well as operational emissions. Various presentations reinforced a series of important facts: Net zero targets/emission caps can’t be met without significantly reducing the total carbon associated …
Highlights from NZGBC Green Property Summit 2024
I attended the NZGBC Green Property Summit this month. Several presentations stood out. The first was by Sam Archer, who spoke immediately before the Minister of Climate Change—Sam sure put that opportunity to address the minister to good use. He was quite blunt about the missed opportunity for the building sector to contribute to our internationally agreed CO2 reduction and …
Off-grid PV systems are not carbon-friendly
It’s common for Passive House homes to have solar panels on their roofs. Every Passive House Plus or Passive House Premium project has to generate at least as much energy as its household plug load over the course of a year and in New Zealand this has been done via photo-voltaic (PV) panels. I want people to be clear that off-grid …
First US EnerPHit hotel is a beauty
What did you do on your family winter break? I took mine to a PHI-certified EnerPHit hotel, the first of its kind in the US. I really enjoyed our stay. I snuck into the all-electric kitchen (yeah, I was kicked out pretty quick) and it looked pretty standard except for the welcome absence of giant gas burners spewing particulate pollution. …
Design and build your own Passive House Premium off-grid home
Maria’s Passive House is in select company whichever way you look at. Few New Zealand Passive projects are rural; only three are certified to Premium performance; it’s believed to be the country’s only off-grid Passive House; and it was designed and built by its owner, Steve Hughes of Build Good Architecture. This minor dwelling is a vital stage in …
Wildfires also kill people through fine particulate pollution
This paper on PM2.5 pollution caused by wildfires estimates the number of Americans killed by wildfires—not the fire itself but the fine particulate pollution in the smoky air. It has implications for New Zealanders and it’s worrying. “We estimate a total of 52,480 to 55,710 premature deaths are attributable to wildland fire PM2.5 over the 11-year period with respect to …
When must windows be open in your Passive House?
As any Passive House homeowner knows, you can open your windows and doors whenever you want. The mechanical ventilation is delivering fresh, filtered, pre-warmed (or cooled) air 24/7 which means opening windows is not required for indoor air quality (IAQ). Not that New Zealanders are very good at that anyway. But there are two specific circumstances in which it’s important …