Simple timber buildings are ripe for retrofits

This Canadian retrofit project is encouraging: it’s an old timber-framed and clad building with single-paned glazing in timber frames. Built in the 1850s, it’s older than the New Zealand homes...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2024

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10 Passive House design tips for keeping cool in summer

The high temperatures this past summer have served to sharpen everyone’s focus on how to design Passive House buildings to remain comfortable for longer when the temps spike. The team...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2024

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DefignTalks podcast talks operational energy

The first episode of a new podcast for architectural designers launched this week, and its first guest is Sustainable Engineering Ltd’s principal Jason Quinn. Hosts Glenn Murdoch and Casey Curtis...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Mar 2024

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The Heights Whare keeps gathering attention

Newly certified LEB The Heights Whare has been featured in an extensive two-page (broadsheet) story in the Otago Daily Times. It can only be read online by subscribers (the ODT...

by Rachel Rose

Updated: Mar 2024

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Siddall’s latest paper does not say Passive House homes shouldn’t use recirculating kitchen extraction

Mark Siddall is a Passive House pioneer in the UK and his latest (collaborative) paper is of course worth reading. It reviews the indoor air quality (IAQ) in residential Passive...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Easier ways to gather data to predict mould growth

Modelling mould growth in domestic environments using relative humidity and temperature is a useful technical paper, as it seeks to modify the VTT model of mould growth on surfaces to...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2024

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Bader Ventura is a certified Passive House project

Oddly, this write-up about Kainga Ora’s Bader Ventura project doesn’t make it explicit that the building did achieve Passive House certification. You can read a detailed case study by Sustainable...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2024

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Fine particulate pollution is terrible for human health

Today I learned that lymph nodes are heavily impacted by air pollution. This photo shows lymph nodes specifically associated with the lungs and how they are affected by air pollution...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2024

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Design Passive House for your individual client

Should Passive House designers be doing more to design buildings that avoid summer overheating? This article from mainstream business magazine Forbes considers Bahnstadt, a Passive House district in Heidelberg, Germany....

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Lee home in Cockle Bay is outstanding but it’s not a certified Passive House yet

The Lee family home in Auckland—all 660m2 of it—is indeed newsworthy but it is unfortunate that Stuff has twice jumped the gun (here and here) by describing it as a...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Feb 2024

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Morning Report: why are NZ homes so damn hot right now?

Morning Report rang me this week for comment about overheating homes, in the face of record temperature spikes. You can listen to the short segment here, or there’s a print...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2024

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New free tool for exploring climate files

I’ve discovered a climate file exploration tool that will be really useful for Passive House designers. Best, it’s open source, so free to use. This is particularly timely given the...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2024

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Replacement cycles should inform climate change mitigation policy

It’s curious there is so much public discussion about electric vehicles and why and how we should ‘flip the fleet’ … and so little about buildings. Yes, we need to...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Jan 2024

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Choose the right heat pump

Source: Coming in from the cold: Heat pump efficiency at low temperatures, Duncan Gibb et al. 2023 This graph from a recent European academic paper shows air-source heat pump performance...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Passivhaus Playbook a great free resource

The latest book from APHA is the Passivhaus Playbook and it’s great. I love the focus on the team and a successful process. The publishers describe it as “a nine-step...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Mar 2026

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Deep retrofits of commercial buildings make good sense

  The deep retrofit at 80 Willis Street, Wellington is featured in a just-released NZ Green Building Council publication, A practical guide to upfront carbon reductions. This is a project...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Dec 2023

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In the race to net zero, operational carbon remains crucial

Lloyd Alter is a Canadian adjunct professor and writer on sustainability topics. Like a growing number of commentators, Lloyd is brushing off the impact of operational carbon and arguing for...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2023

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Stepwise energy improvements waste time and money

Neil Savery had a 20 year career with the Australian Building Codes Board, nine years as its CEO. Let’s say that gives him some perspective, and industry experience worth listening...

by Jason Quinn

Updated: Nov 2023

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