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2019 September 26 New Zealand Legislation: Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations 2019

A certain friend of mine from Canada pointed out to me late last week that the only exemption for requiring a fixed heater in the main living room-sized per the...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 24 Newsroom: Builders Release Ambitious Zero Carbon Roadmap

2019 September 24 Newsroom: Builders Release Ambitious Zero Carbon Roadmap

Several parties in the NZ high-performance building sector have been working on big meaningful changes to the way we build and all of us agree the winning combination is to...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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2019 September 23 Scoop: Healthy Homes Initiative Evaluation Positive

2019 September 23 Scoop: Healthy Homes Initiative Evaluation Positive

This is a significant reduction in trips to the hospital for children. I wish we had an easy way to price this into building standards and made our buildings better...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 23 The Developer: It should be a no-brainer, so why aren’t we building more Passivhaus?

2019 September 23 The Developer: It should be a no-brainer, so why aren’t we building more Passivhaus?

“Most developers will choose to build to minimum standards,” says Palmer. Architect Justin Bere, a Passivhaus specialist who has written a book on the subject, echoes this. “It’s very difficult...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 20 ATTMA: Registered Air Tightness Testers - New Zealand

2019 September 20 ATTMA: Registered Air Tightness Testers – New Zealand

List of all the current air leakage testers in New Zealand accredited with ATTMA. Air leakage testing very tight buildings (as they all should be build tight and ventilate right...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 20 Stuff: Former Stable Master's Cottage Rebuilt As Certified Passive House

2019 September 20 Stuff: Former Stable Master’s Cottage Rebuilt (and targeting) Certified Passive House

The owner of Mona Vale’s former Stable Master’s Cottage got carried away when he visited Christchurch four years ago – he fell in love with an “as is, where is”...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 18 Queenstown Lakes District: Design Team Appointed For District’s First Passive House-Standard Community Building

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) endorsed an ultra-low energy ‘Passive House’ concept for the new hall late last year. Since then, Council officers have been working to turn this aspiration...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 17 HVAC&R News: 2020 South Pacific Passive House Conference

We’ll be at the conference in Sydney and teaching a workshop beforehand as well. Read more on this link....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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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...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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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...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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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:...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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2019 September 9 Building Green: People Want a Greener Future but Don’t Know How to Get There

“Perhaps most disappointing for building professionals were responses about the impact of green building on the environment, people, and communities. “Only 11% of respondents associate words like ‘green building’ and...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2020

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29 August 2019 NZ Herald’s Anne Gibson: Why a Henderson mother won $13k from her landlords: 22 separate issues at rental property

“A house with leaking and damaged gutters, rotting window frames, illegal stairs, a sagging and mouldy ceiling, rotting weatherboards, a rotten toilet floor and exposed electrical board have earned a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2019

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Oppose NASH as AS for E2 as it doesn’t cover external insulation

And putting batts between light steel framing is not a good option as discussed below. https://www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/building-code-update-consultation-november-2019 The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found that thermal bridging in a wood-framed wall...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Sep 2019

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27 August 2019 The Fifth Estate’s Poppy Johnston: NSW gets its first Certified Passive House homes

Congratulations to Joe Mercieca of Blue Eco Homes for Sapphire Passive House in the Blue Mountains and Andy Marlow of Envirotecture for the Thornleigh house. The article states that “The...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2019

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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...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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19 August 2019 BMJ Journals: Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study

Damp mouldy housing and early childhood hospital admissions for acute respiratory infection: a case control study Bottom line for the Wellington Region alone 1710 hospitalizations per year for children under...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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19 August 2019 SunLive: Crank up the heat on someone’s winter

Yes sometimes even sick folks living in cold homes don’t realize how it impacts their health. “Two weeks ago, the temperature dropped to zero or one degrees inland where a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2019

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