What is it with glass? Buildings in Australia and New Zealand tend to be over-glazed. Is it because huge windows look good in the renders and are a quick go-to for lazy architects? Glazing is best used to frame views. Think of windows as picture frames, not an alternative material for a wall. Glazing needs to be designed with three …
Carbon budget modelled for NZ new builds and existing stock
This is an excellent paper on modelling the carbon emitted by New Zealand homes during construction and use against the IPCC 1.5 degree emission targets. The authors follow population weighting all the way down. I recommend reading the whole thing. Figure 1 shows the current estimates for New Zealand new construction Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) carbon emissions for the next …
Fuel poverty harms mental health too
Living in a cold house you can’t afford to heat causes physical health problems, up to and including premature death. There’s plenty of evidence supporting this and I’m grateful to researchers like Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman and her colleagues at the University of Otago for (a) doing the research in this country and (b) communicating their research findings to a broad …
Why Passive House costs more
If you’ve met Christchurch Passive House builder Peter Bielski, you’ll know he’s a man of few and well-chosen words, not minced. His company is involved in an ambitious project to create a new sub-division of certified Passive House Plus homes. In a recent blog post, he tackles the question of cost premiums for Passive House performance. He’s quite right: when …
Healthy Homes Standard tweaked
A December 3 announcement on changes to the Healthy Homes Standard solves one of the issues caused by this well intentioned legislation. We were designing absolutely best practice apartments, which wouldn’t meet the HHS extract requirements for ventilation. I discussed this with HUD several times and I can vouch that their people wanted to encourage this best practice—but they were …
New thermal performance data for NZ timber window profiles
Consulting with building component manufacturers to help them make good products even better is a favourite activity for the Sustainable Engineering team. Lunds Joinery, a highly-regarded family-owned company in Timaru, approached us to do some window calculations for their standard timber profiles. Lunds incorporated the fRSI calculations and Uf data into a new publication, the LJT Timber Window Guide, which …
Loopholes in H1 changes?
To be clear folks: H1/AS1 housing changes apply to all housing, even apartment buildings of any size**. BPI (Building Performance Index) is no longer a permitted compliance method. Curtain walls are included in the R-value requirements (no change) per either H1/AS1 or H1/AS2—but need to be calculated by ISO12631. Lots of folks seem to be focused on pointing out loop-holes …
NZ “outsulation” guide now available
Now available: the Outsulation Guide for High Performance Walls, brought to you by Outright, suppliers of continuous insulation. Sustainable Engineering provided the thermal modelling calculations and I enjoyed the discussions we’ve had about applications. This guide focuses on external insulation (“outsulation”, get it?) of walls with a focus on residential applications. Download a free copy here. I’ve been asked to …
Energy efficiency will improve
Today we have it: the new H1 has been released. I no longer need to keep it all secret and can finally talk about the new energy efficiency requirements. Note there is a year’s lag before these come into effect (“adjustment period”). Just get on with it, I say to the heel-draggers. As MBIE says, “the changes go as far …