Design Passive House for your individual client

Should Passive House designers be doing more to design buildings that avoid summer overheating? This article from mainstream business magazine Forbes considers Bahnstadt, a Passive House district in Heidelberg, Germany....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Replacement cycles should inform climate change mitigation policy

It’s curious there is so much public discussion about electric vehicles and why and how we should ‘flip the fleet’ … and so little about buildings. Yes, we need to...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2024

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Choose the right heat pump

Source: Coming in from the cold: Heat pump efficiency at low temperatures, Duncan Gibb et al. 2023 This graph from a recent European academic paper shows air-source heat pump performance...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Passivhaus Playbook a great free resource

The latest book from APHA is the Passivhaus Playbook and it’s great. I love the focus on the team and a successful process. The publishers describe it as “a nine-step...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Deep retrofits of commercial buildings make good sense

  The deep retrofit at 80 Willis Street, Wellington is featured in a just-released NZ Green Building Council publication, A practical guide to upfront carbon reductions. This is a project...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2023

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Air transfer solution: ventilated doors

Australian Passive House designer Matt Purves posted online some intriguing photos of bespoke doors he built himself from leftover spruce wall panelling. These were for his home in Tasmania, which...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Mar 2026

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New plans for Passive House training and certification

Dr Kara Rosemeier has personally trained and certified almost every Passive House professional in New Zealand and her influence cannot be overstated. Kara is preparing for a gradual retirement and...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Nov 2023

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Air pollution kills New Zealanders

Air pollution is real and has deadly impacts. In New Zealand we’re 10 times more likely to die from the effects of air pollution than from a car accident. Marc...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2023

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Certifier scope of service guidance a helpful read

The Passivhaus Trust, the UK’s industry body, has published an excellent guide to where the roles and responsibilities sit during Passive House design, construction and certification stages. It’s worth reading....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2023

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Successfully marketing Passive House performance

We hear that stories on homes built to Passive House standard are very popular with Stuff readers. Here’s another well-written story about this family home in west Auckland, just completed...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Oct 2023

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Leaky buildings ripe for EnerPHit level makeovers

Nick Gaites spent years designing a new home for his family and overseeing its construction, successfully achieving Passive House certification. His family loved the winter they spent living there but...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Mar 2026

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Passive House design training relaunches, on-demand format

New Zealand needs more Passive Houses—and other buildings heading in that high-performance direction. That requires more confident and skilled Passive House designers. Sustainable Engineering last year launched a new training...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2023

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Growth in multi-family Passive House buildings in North America

The PHI-aligned Passive House Network has released a detailed and inspiring guide to the costs and benefits of multi-family Passive House buildings. It draws on data from New York and...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2023

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A logical staircase to build PH design skills

Seaward House, a newly certified Passive House on Auckland’s waterfront, is a fantastic example of how architects can build their skills in high-performance design in effective, methodical ways. The architect...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2023

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Glazing percentage: handy rule of thumb to prevent overheating

Prevent overheating by keeping the window area to 20% of the floor area. That’s a very old passive solar rule-of-thumb from New England (Eastern USA) where I grew up.  So...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2023

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Kids suffer when schools are poorly designed

Some solid work has been done in Aotearoa New Zealand by very capable architects and Passive House designers to design classrooms to Passive House performance levels. The fact none have...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Retrofitting wall insulation is not risk-free

This article from the BBC discusses claims cavity wall insulation installed as part of a government retrofit scheme has led to homes filled with black mould. The installer has gone...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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All homes need mechanical ventilation

I was happy to see this lovely article on a very high-performance home down in Greymouth but I take issue with the last sentence, which implies that mechanical ventilation is...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jun 2023

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