There are some advantages to being laggards in adopting new building products and methods. CLT is more common in Europe and has a longer history of use there. Damage and failures have occurred even in buildings less than five years old. It’s making insurers nervous and some are applying higher premiums to CLT constructions. Some key lessons about protecting against …
Aggregate heat loss testing (coheating) standard released
Good news: a European Standard for heat load testing has been released. I hope it will lead to more research that measures the performance gap (if any) between the heating load predicted by design stage energy modelling and as-built performance. Heat load testing is also known as co-heating testing, it’s a measure of a building’s thermal performance. The standard uses …
Design and build your own Passive House Premium off-grid home
Maria’s Passive House is in select company whichever way you look at. Few New Zealand Passive projects are rural; only three are certified to Premium performance; it’s believed to be the country’s only off-grid Passive House; and it was designed and built by its owner, Steve Hughes of Build Good Architecture. This minor dwelling is a vital stage in …
Wildfires also kill people through fine particulate pollution
This paper on PM2.5 pollution caused by wildfires estimates the number of Americans killed by wildfires—not the fire itself but the fine particulate pollution in the smoky air. It has implications for New Zealanders and it’s worrying. “We estimate a total of 52,480 to 55,710 premature deaths are attributable to wildland fire PM2.5 over the 11-year period with respect to …
Streamlining Passive House design
There’s some anticipation about the release of easyPH, understandable given its promise to make Passive House design easier. Here’s some advice for new designers about how to streamline and simplify Passive House design, some of which is applicable to either PHPP or easyPH. Firstly, make sure you’re familiar with the subset of projects that can be designed using easyPH. This …
When must windows be open in your Passive House?
As any Passive House homeowner knows, you can open your windows and doors whenever you want. The mechanical ventilation is delivering fresh, filtered, pre-warmed (or cooled) air 24/7 which means opening windows is not required for indoor air quality (IAQ). Not that New Zealanders are very good at that anyway. But there are two specific circumstances in which it’s important …
easyPH tool aims to simplify Passive House design
A new tool for Passive House designers aims to simplify the entry of data into the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software. Called easyPH, the beta version is bundled with PHPP 10.6. If coupled with modelling in designPH, easyPH will save a lot of time and should reduce stress for new Passive House designers, particularly if you review and follow …
Making certified Passive House tradesperson training even better
Ideas on how to make certified Passive House tradespersons training even better: that’s one of the things I took away from the THRIVE 2024 Passivhaus Conference in Melbourne. UK architect Julia Bennett gave a presentation called “Tackling Challenges in Passivhaus construction: Notes from the UK” and given Sustainable Engineering Ltd delivers training to the Passive House community in New Zealand, …
Highlights from the 2024 Thrive Passivhaus Conference
The Thrive 2024 Passivhaus Conference in Melbourne last week was great—here are my highlights. It was well worth nipping across the ditch for two days. (Was I really the only person from New Zealand in attendance?) I estimate there were about 320 people there, plus those at the trade show, a big turnout. Here were the top three sessions for …