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28 August 2018 Stuff’s Hamish Mcneilly: Council confirms six-figure support of NZ’s second co-housing project

Excellent but brief article on an awesome multi-family project that is targeting the Certified Passive House standard. I remember being asked to estimate the work involved in certification and then...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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27 August 2018 The Guardian’s Damian Carrington and Lily Kuo: Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals

So air pollution is not only stupid but makes you stupid especially if you are male and older. Wow! Sometimes you can’t make this stuff up. This article in The...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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23 August 2018 The Fifth State: On why ethics is the thing we most need and is sadly in short supply

This article starts by reminding us of the finance industries poor ethical practices of charging dead people fees but soon moves on to the similarly un-ethical dilemmas in how we...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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22 August 2018 The Fifth State’s Willow Aliento: Support urgently needed for Storer’s bill to make rental housing bearable in extremes

This bill is about tax treatments; to encourage property owners with low cost rentals to invest in energy efficiency – especially the building fabric. But from my perspective the point...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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22 August 2018 The Spinoff’s Ethan Donnell: Mould, sweet mould inside New Zealand’s damp housing crisis

  I see mouldy houses quite a bit in my work but this Spinoff article still shocks me with the impacts on occupants. Most of the bad buildings in this...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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Case Studies on Certified Passive House Projects – example Kowhai Passive House

Sustainable Engineering is putting together a page on all of the New Zealand Certified Passive House Projects. We will start with projects we have certified ourselves and then add in...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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16 August 2018 The Fifth Estate – Melbourne’s proposed Green Spine “could be benchmarked to Passive House standard”

This past March at the Passive House Conference in Munich, Germany, I had the opportunity to meet with Dieter Herz of Herz and Lang. One of the founding members of a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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15 August 2018 The Guardian’s Bob Ward: Planning regulations overlook heat – so developers build death traps

  “Heat deaths are preventable. No more excuses: we need better regulation and guidance to stop unsafe housing being built” If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail. If...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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13 August 2018 Otago Daily Times – Warm and Cosy Homes Essential for Everyone

This article from the Otago Daily Times is pretty shocking. It’s amazing to feel the scale of the problem when you think about one-third of all the hospital missions due...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Aug 2018

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Passive House Climate Files for NZ

As of 13 December 2017 there are six additional PHI certified climate files for NZ. These now cover all of NZ including the Chatham Islands. It is important to note...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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WUFI

Hygrothermal modeling with WUFI Sustainable Engineering can perform hygrothermal modeling of your proposed assemblies using WUFI one or two dimensional software. Quick initial reviews of assemblies and more in-depth consulting...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Stress test your design for Overheating

I hate comfort complaints. Not the complaining bit – folks are nice – but I hate the failed expectations of comfort. This past summer I had several calls from clients...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jul 2021

  • Certification Guidance
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Glass is rocket science for high performance buildings

During a presentation at the South Pacific Passive House Conference in Christchurch (March 2017). I spoke on lessons learned from New Zealand projects. One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Fundamental of Building Science – The Building Enclosure and the Four Control Layers

Understanding of the building enclosure and the four control layers that make up the building enclosure is vital to understanding how the building enclosure will perform Enclosure The building enclosure...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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How to estimate of the R-value of unconditioned spaces

Several Passive House projects undergoing certification have requested a way to estimate the additional R-value of an adjoining unconditioned spaces (such as garage). A good example is a garage which...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

  • Certification Guidance
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DHW Tanks – W/K from kWh/day

Summary The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) requires that energy losses from Domestic Hot Water (DHW) Storage tanks be entered as Watts per degree Kelvin (W/K) rather than the more...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

  • Certification Guidance
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How to scale HRV data to ERV for use in Passive House Planning Package

Summary Several Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) systems available have HRV performance data for the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) but do not have Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) performance data. Knowing...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

  • Certification Guidance
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Hygiene Criterion applied to a thermal bridge

PH certification criteria requires that a minimum surface temperature be achieved. Steps: 1. Determine the exterior temperature to use – call this the Hygiene External Temperature. This temperature can be...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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