Heartland city Palmerston North now has its very first certified Passive House project, Hokowhitu Passivhaus. It’s notable for a highly-engaged homeowner, a skilled registered architect and a conscientious building team. None of them had prior experience with Passive House but they did choose a very experienced Passive House designer and altogether it went very smoothly. Read on to admire the …
Electrification is the future (and the future is now)
While electrification will drive up electrical consumption, it will simultaneously lead to a vast decrease in overall energy demand. This is primarily because of the far greater efficiency of electric appliances and vehicles compared to their fossil fuel counterparts. If we can successfully make this nationwide shift, it has the potential to fix a lot of our energy-related issues, from …
Replicable design for energy-efficient homes in India
It’s interesting to see how other nations tackle energy efficiency in buildings. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)’s Handbook of Replicable Designs for Energy Efficient Residential Buildings in India provides standardised and practical design templates aimed at reducing energy use in Indian homes. It does this by working through Passive House design strategies tuned for Indian climates. The notable difference …
Assessing feasibility of commercial PV generation
EECA recently published guidance for businesses weighing up commercial PV generation. As always, the devil lies in the detail, and understanding the methodology used to assess the viability of solar energy is important for businesses weighing up possible on-site PV generation. The report, Commercial-scale solar in New Zealand: Information for businesses considering investing in solar energy highlights several crucial considerations. …
Tech overview for ECCHO now available
The technical overview for the NZ Green Building Council Energy and Carbon Calculator for Homes is now available. The guide was put together by me and NZGBC’s Sam Archer. It’s a free download, available here, plus there’s general information about the guide here. We developed the first version of ECCHO in Excel using PHPPv9 as the engine, then Sam Archer …
Primary Energy Renewable (PER) is misunderstood
How PHI calculates eligibility for Passive House Plus and Premium certifications seems to be unclear, even to some experienced Passive House designers. There are many factors that impact the amount of energy generated by a specific renewable energy system on a day-to-day basis. But none of that matters for PH Plus or Premium certification. It’s about Primary Energy Renewable. And …
Short stays in Passive House homes in Aotearoa New Zealand
I’ve been describing the features and benefits of Passive House buildings for years but even my best words can’t convey as much as directly experiencing it with all your senses. The international Passive House Open Days are a great chance to have a first look but an overnight stay would be a far more complete experience. What vast majority of …
Visiting The House, a giant NYC Passive House housing complex
There’s so much to see in New York City, including lots of certified Passive House buildings. Here’s another side trip I did during last year’s family holiday. The House is a 26-storey apartment building on Roosevelt Island, housing 352 rental apartments for Cornell Tech students, faculty and staff. It was the world’s largest certified Passive House building when it was …
Keep designPH up-to-date to avoid Passive House certification hitches
Passive House designers: do you know what version of designPH you are using? It’s important you are using, if not the latest version (2.2.24 at time of writing) then 2.1.15 or later. Otherwise your shading factors may not be accurate. We identified this issue last year and issued a brief advisory in our November email newsletter. Here’s the background explainer …