A December 3 announcement on changes to the Healthy Homes Standard solves one of the issues caused by this well intentioned legislation. We were designing absolutely best practice apartments, which wouldn’t meet the HHS extract requirements for ventilation. I discussed this with HUD several times and I can vouch that their people wanted to encourage this best practice—but they were …
Better school buildings get closer
Architect—and newly graduated PH designer—Murray Robertson wrote a really insightful piece about his experience designing a mass timber school building to the Passive House standard. Things were looking good: “We found for a typical mid-size school building that all that was required, apart from careful modelling and design, was better-performing windows, a relatively inexpensive airtightness layer, and a fresh air …
New thermal performance data for NZ timber window profiles
Consulting with building component manufacturers to help them make good products even better is a favourite activity for the Sustainable Engineering team. Lunds Joinery, a highly-regarded family-owned company in Timaru, approached us to do some window calculations for their standard timber profiles. Lunds incorporated the fRSI calculations and Uf data into a new publication, the LJT Timber Window Guide, which …
Loopholes in H1 changes?
To be clear folks: H1/AS1 housing changes apply to all housing, even apartment buildings of any size**. BPI (Building Performance Index) is no longer a permitted compliance method. Curtain walls are included in the R-value requirements (no change) per either H1/AS1 or H1/AS2—but need to be calculated by ISO12631. Lots of folks seem to be focused on pointing out loop-holes …
NZ “outsulation” guide now available
Now available: the Outsulation Guide for High Performance Walls, brought to you by Outright, suppliers of continuous insulation. Sustainable Engineering provided the thermal modelling calculations and I enjoyed the discussions we’ve had about applications. This guide focuses on external insulation (“outsulation”, get it?) of walls with a focus on residential applications. Download a free copy here. I’ve been asked to …
Energy efficiency will improve
Today we have it: the new H1 has been released. I no longer need to keep it all secret and can finally talk about the new energy efficiency requirements. Note there is a year’s lag before these come into effect (“adjustment period”). Just get on with it, I say to the heel-draggers. As MBIE says, “the changes go as far …
Airtightness results in NZ PH builds keep improving
The Leith Valley Passive House in Dunedin is New Zealand’s newest certified Passive House Plus home and can boast of an extraordinary blower door test result: 0.17 air changes per house (ACH) as measured by the final blower door test. Builder Wayne Dyet (WD Homes) is a competitive man with an amazing eye for detail and he’s determined to construct …
Gone in 60 mins
Wow. The scale of this Irish development is immense: 219 Passive House homes planned across a 26-acre site in Belfast, a £70m project . The first 12 houses released for sale sold in less than a hour. A further nine are about to be offered, completing the first release. These homes are expected to be completed mid-2022. We’ve one builder/developer …
Passive House homes make for happy families
Wonderful article from Stuff on the Sole Family Passivhaus in Christchurch. The Soles built a well-above-Code home about 10 years previously, but decided to go all the way on this, their forever home. Our case study has all the technical detail. Great to read that that the Soles are happy with their home, which “Nadia says is functioning ‘exactly how …