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 course, designed to make the Passive House design process more practical, predictable and straightforward for the designer, architect, builder and client. The course was very well-received and now it’s back, …
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 Massachusetts, two US states that have been early adopters. It’s a free download and worth your time. It contains detailed information about the minimal cost premium required to build to …
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 entrusted with this ambitious project was Marc Lithgow from Space Division. First, he chose to bring in Passive House experts to do the PH design, doubtless learning a whole lot …
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 I was interested to discover that Mark Siddall has researched this same metric for homes in the UK and found it holds true there. He details this in a brief …
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 yet been built is a sad reflection on prevailing attitudes in the Ministry of Education. Mechanical ventilation for consistent fresh air is getting stripped out at the so-called value engineering …
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 into liquidation and the industry body guaranteeing the work is blaming the residents of these 1960s-era blocks of flats. I feel for the folks living in those homes. I have …
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 needed because this house is special. Yes, this home requires mechanical ventilation … but so do all homes in New Zealand that have windows you can close. That’s been known …
Better building design improves sleep
Sleep is super important for good health and a good life. We know this but generally overlook how building design choices impact sleep quality. An ASHRAE Journal article just published cites an Australia study which estimated the overall cost of sleep disorders in 2019 and 2020 to be USD$35.4 billion! “[T]he financial cost component was USD$10.0 billion … comprising health …
Filtering out fine particulates increases life expectancy
Indoor air filtration capable of reducing PM2.5 particles increases life expectancy and experts argue should change standards to require better filtration. In general, the filters in ventilation equipment are primarily designed to protect the equipment and not to make the air better for those who breathe. There are exceptions, such as the F7 filters in the Passive House-level MVHR systems, …