2019-09-20 13_19_53-Made of straw _ Otago Daily Times Online News

2019 September 16 Otago Daily Times: Made of Straw

Great to see the progress Jessica and Ben are making on their Passive House. Once you have lowered the energy consumption of a home down to Passive House standard the embodied CO2 in the building becomes a reasonable fraction (1/4th is a good estimate) and straw bale and lime/clay plaster is one way to significantly reduce this. Can’t wait to …

2019 September 13 Exeter City Council: “Incredibly impressed” by Exeter’s energy efficient homes

“Gareth Hughes, MP, self-funded a fact-finding trip to Exeter to find out about the city’s Passivhaus programme. He was keen to see how it could be replicated back home.” “To date, the City Council has built 67 Passivhaus properties, with more energy-efficient properties in the pipeline. Even the eagerly-awaited St Sidwell’s Point Leisure Centre will be built to Passivhaus standards, …

ConcernsOverCold-HousingDeaths

2019 September 11 HVAC&R News: Concerns over cold-housing deaths

Cold houses kill people. “Better Renting has released a report that estimates low-quality housing causes approximately 140 cold-related deaths per year in the ACT. The report is titled Unsafe as Houses: Cold-housing deaths in the ACT, and compares temperature data with statistics on monthly deaths from 2009–17.” According to RMIT University’s Dr Nicola Willand, over a quarter of a million older …

2019 August 20 – Passive House Institute: More Passive Houses in Paradise

I was looking for several examples of apartment buildings on the PHI website when I came across this colorful interview of New Zealand’s Passive House champion Thomas van Raamsdonk. When Thomas was asked ” What is the current situation? “ His reply was: “To date, there are over 20 certified Passive House buildings in New Zealand. Many more projects are underway or …

AIRAH Ecolibruium August 2019 Feature

One of our newsletter articles was published in AIRAH magazine. AIRAH Ecolibruium August 2019 https://www.airah.org.au/ EcoLibrium/2019/Ecolibrium_August_2019.aspx When asked where he learned this Jason pointed out it was from Joe Lstiburek in Westford Massachusetts way back in 2014 and from Kara Rosemeier in 2012 but with less swearing. Read more here.

23rd International Passive House Conference 2019

We’ve confirmed the time and date for our Director, Jason Quinn, is speaking at the 23rd International Passive House Conference 2019 in China. It will be on Wednesday, 9th of Oct at 4pm and will be the first presentation in the Ecology section of the conference. “PHPP and LCA­Quick – an in­teg­rated en­ergy / Life Cycle As­sess­ment tool­setDe­mon­stra­tion of the …

Passive House for New Zealand book featured in NZ Green Party Te Awa magazine

Living in this country has been a shocking experience for me. I’ve discovered that some Kiwis don’t think anything of wearing a winter jacket inside when it’s cold. As a building scientist and Passive House Institute NZ certifier, I’ve seen some pretty horrific examples of homes and buildings, even brand new builds that are not designed to stay dry and …