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 service available. PHINZ has contracted the Sustainable Engineering team to answer questions via email on PHINZ’s behalf. The questions and answers will also be compiled as a FAQ, which will …
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 owner, architect, Passive House designer, project manager and joiner, a noteworthy number of hats to wear. She deserves congratulations on a very high-performing build that came in on time and …
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 a decade. Jessica’s arrival will further increase the company’s capacity to carry out Passive House design and take on large and more complicated projects. Jessica will bring valuable insight as …
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 bit token. Rainwater tanks are hardly an optional sustainable upgrade when town water supply isn’t available. Predictably, our team puts the Watterson Residence in Featherston in the #1 spot. We …
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 documenting a Certified Passive House, EnerPHit retrofit (or Precertification) or PHI Low Energy Building for which you have done the PH design work in a special technical report format and …
“Grand” Passive House project in spotlight
Great to see certified Passive House performance getting some prime media coverage. It featured on Grand Designs this month, which was then written up by Stuff. It’s a large home in Featherston, designed by one of the owners, and looks fantastic. The owners got stuck in on the construction side too; it was a great effort but had to be …
Q&A on Passive House on Today FM podcast
Sustainable Engineering principal Jason Quinn featured in a long segment on the Design & Build Show. The interviewers did a good job of raising lots of the misconceptions that linger about the Passive House methodology. Hopefully Jason dispelled them. It was great that Ngā Kāinga Anamata got discussed at some length. The image above will take you to the second …
Better windows start now
It’s disappointing that the c have been delayed further. However, new levels of window thermal performance kicked in last week. So did new calculation methods. As of 3 Nov 2022 the old H1/AS1 etc are no longer acceptable. I’ve included the new schedule below. It’s more complicated because some parts of the upgrade were pushed back a further six months. …
New PH design process course is humming along
The first cohort of students in the Practical Passive House design process course are more than halfway through. Everyone in the group of 16 recently completed their first big assignment, a DesignPH model. About a third are using the course to help them develop a client’s design, while others are working through personal projects. Feedback from students has been very …