A residential project involving hemp as a building material is targeting Passive House certification in New Zealand. Hemp is a new material for the Sustainable Engineering team and it’s interesting to go diving into the techie details. As with other natural building materials, hemp is not a standardised product. The exact mix of the hempcrete and its reasonably expected thermal …
SEL provides PHPP support for PHINZ
Have you purchased the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software from PHINZ and got stuck with some aspects of energy modelling using this tool? PHINZ now has a PHPP support service available. PHINZ has contracted the Sustainable Engineering team to answer questions via email on PHINZ’s behalf. The questions and answers will also be compiled as a FAQ, which will …
Better windows start now
It’s disappointing that the c have been delayed further. However, new levels of window thermal performance kicked in last week. So did new calculation methods. As of 3 Nov 2022 the old H1/AS1 etc are no longer acceptable. I’ve included the new schedule below. It’s more complicated because some parts of the upgrade were pushed back a further six months. …
New PH design process course is humming along
The first cohort of students in the Practical Passive House design process course are more than halfway through. Everyone in the group of 16 recently completed their first big assignment, a DesignPH model. About a third are using the course to help them develop a client’s design, while others are working through personal projects. Feedback from students has been very …
New Aus Defence buildings to meet airtightness targets
Tip of the hat to Sean Maxwell for his LinkedIn post alerting me to some welcome developments in Australia. The Australian Department of Defence has revised its Building Energy Performance Guide to include enforceable air tightness testing requirements for all its new buildings. Permeability targets are defined in the guide. All buildings must be tested for airtightness according to ISO …
New airtight resource available from ProClima
ProClima has released an in-depth look at lightweight timber framing construction for walls and roof (and including warm roofs and their hybrids) across the climate zones of Australia. The report, by Jesse Clarke, is An Australian Based Study On Airtightness and Moisture Management and it is available to download. It includes tropical climates. That will be of considerable academic interest …
Thermal bypassing publication a must-read
If you design building assemblies you need to make the time to read this new publication. Thermal bypass—the air movement through and around insulation—has a very big impact on building performance. In the High-Performance Construction Details Handbook, I noted that thermal bypass can reduce the thermal performance of wall assemblies by 30% or more. The Passivhaus Trust in the UK …
Retrofits for energy efficiency must accelerate to meet zero carbon deadline
Imagine: being able to model an entire city’s energy use—or the whole country!—just like you can a single building in PHPP. This is what districtPH does. Bland name for an exciting tool that enables extremely significant outcomes. The model shows how global changes to the building stock impact energy usage and thus carbon emissions over long time spans. It’s been …
Historical insulation levels in NZ
Against the backdrop of all the recent noise about increasing Building Code minimum R-values, let’s look back at how the minimum standard (or typical values) have changed over time. This is a question I am asked regularly. The methodology varies a bit over time, but this excellent article authored by Nigel Isaacs while he was at BRANZ is the best …