8% more: that’s the extra cost in the UK for building to the Passive House standard, according to this report. That is quite good. The most important factors in containing costs are: simple form; modest glazing; and an experienced team—in particular, experienced clients. Is it noteworthy that the majority of the projects in this study were social housing, not bespoke …
Every house a Certified Passive House by 2030
There are about 30,000 new houses a year currently built in New Zealand. In a decade, could they all be certified Passive House? I think it can be done but the biggest barrier won’t be money, construction materials or staff availability. It will be training. Building a Certified Passive House is hard—the first time. Then once you’ve done a few, …
Carbon-positive landscapes too
The basic idea? The chosen materials and landscape components sequester carbon to balance out the carbon it took to create it, all within five to 20 years. (Five for greener projects like parks, gardens, campuses and mixed-use developments, with up to 20 years for more urban projects.) The important new development is that they’ve run the numbers: it is possible …
Consider social responsibility also
I try and read Daniel Overbey’ posts for the technical content but in his first post of the year, he presented a real challenge. “John Elkington is often credited with first coining the term ‘triple bottom line’ in his 1997 book Cannibals with Forks. He defined the triple bottom line as a sustainability framework that examines an enterprise’s social, environmental …
2019 December 16 Construction Canada: B.C. Setting New Standard For Building Energy Performance
BC Step Code Way Out In Front Comparing New Zealand to British Columbia, Canada is an interesting one. Its population is very similar to NZ (5.1 million people compared to our 4.8 m). When I talk to friends from Vancouver, they mention the crazy run-up in real estate prices (even worse Auckland) but also how everything will be Passive House …
2019 November 26 Otago Daily Times: Sustainable Communal Housing Requires Skill
This is a great short video of the co-housing project. If you watch closely you can see lots of construction details and products. My favourite Easter egg is the shot of the slab edge where you can see the domestic hot water central loop which is VERY well insulated. Love the eHaus branded WRB as well. Although not mentioned this …
2019 November 26 Radio New Zealand: Mouldy Home Victims Get New Lease On Life
In our opinion every home needs continuous mechanical ventilation. EVERY HOME. Alice Peacock, who works as a social worker with the healthy housing programme, travels around the Bay helping vulnerable families in mouldy houses. “It’s in everyone’s homes – but it is just particularly bad in some homes where it is a lot harder to ventilate the home – if …
2019 November 22 Newsroom: NZ is still building leaky homes
We are still building leaky homes. “According to journalist Peter Dyer, who has spent the past seven years researching the crisis, we are still making the same mistakes. ‘Everyone I talk to says we are still building them.’” Yep. Unfortunately this is true. And we’re trying to cover up poor design approaches – literally the same ones that caused these …
2019 November 21 Wanaka Sun: Meeting Luggate Community Needs
“QLDC endorsed an ultra‐low energy passive house concept for the new hall in late 2018, which will make it one of the first community facilities built and certified to passive house standard anywhere in New Zealand.” I expect this project will result in a significant change in how councils view the business case for facilities they will own and operate …