Is natural plaster airtight?

UPDATE Aug 2023 This project’s final blower door test showed a significant improvement in airtightness, which qualifies the initial commentary made below at the time of the preliminary test. The...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2023

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Momentum gathering on multi-occupancy Passive House projects

Architype in Dunedin has notched up another Passive House win, with successful certification of the country’s first social housing units. Our case study notes the challenges that were met with...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2023

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New concrete code of practice published

Concrete New Zealand has published a new document, CP01:2022 – Code of Practice for Weathertightness. It’s available to download from the Technical Documents section. Note that this 2022 update is...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Aus leads way on educational Passive House buildings

A private childcare centre operator in Canberra, Australia had the foresight more than five years ago to build facilities to Passive House standards. Her aim was to build the healthiest...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2023

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Just a matter of time

I’ve always said: once you’ve lived in a certified Passive House home, you wouldn’t settle for anything less. I’d better change that to ‘once you’ve lived or worked…’ because these...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Benefits of high-performance housing spread wide

Retrofitting buildings to the EnerPHit standard and designing new ones to certified Passive House levels of performance lowers cost to society and produces lots of co-benefits (ie shared by society...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Funding and quality assurance the way to ensure successful energy retrofits

Successful energy retrofits are complex. This should be no surprise: building are complex and fixing one already built is harder than building it properly in the first place. It is...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Safety tips and rescue remedies for Passive House design

Allow for mistakes and changes in the course of the design (and build) process. That, in a nutshell, is possibly the best piece of advice we can offer to Passive...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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The Fave Four according to Stuff

Stuff’s focus on certified Passive House homes continues with a great round up by journalist Colleen Hawkes. She profiles her personal four favourite Passive House projects from 2022. Two are...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Healthy Homes Standards: the amendment explained

I’ve been asked several times for information on the New Zealand Healthy Homes Standards and how it impacts high-performance buildings. Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Passive House award winners featured in online flipbook

Check this out: a lovely flipbook with in-depth case studies of the projects from the Passive House Architectural awards in 2021. Lavishly illustrated, illuminating text and lots of drawings: this...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Hempcrete thermal modelling info

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...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Mary James’ work influential

Mary James is the director of publications at Passive House Accelerator in the US. She’s written multiple books on aspects of Passive House and her work New York Passive House...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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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...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2023

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Passive House in the spotlight

Josefine Watterson’s Featherston home has just received certification but already it is doubtless the nation’s best known Passive House home, thanks to being featured on Grand Designs. Josefine is the...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Jan 2023

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Jessica Eyers moving to Sustainable Engineering Ltd

Jessica Eyers is joining Sustainable Engineering Ltd in 2023. Jessica needs little introduction to New Zealand’s Passive House community as she has been a certified Passive House designer for nearly...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Dec 2022

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Grand design at Tapu more than meets the eye

Stuff’s ranking of this season’s homes featured on Grand Designs is of course highly subjective and arguably not particularly useful. Sustainability did feature as a criteria but frankly was a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2022

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Renewal of your PH Designer/Consultant or PH Tradesperson Qualification

We’re often asked by accredited PH Designers / Consultants and Tradespersons how to renew their qualification. For PH Designers / Consultants there are two ways to renew your qualification: By...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2022

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