You would think this is rare and something that you need to go looking for but it is not abnormal in NZ The windows of the North East Valley flat stay open all day – and night – just to clear the smell which lingers in the home.” “That smell is likely caused by the rising damp, which left the carpets sodden …
MVHR commissioning in Certified Passive House Buildings (includes PHI Low Energy Building Standard and EnerPHit as well)
In order to certify your building as meeting the exacting Passive House Standard the certification standard “Criteria for the Passive House, EnerPHit and PHI Low Energy Building Standard, version 9f, revised 15.08.2016” requires in 3.2.5 Ventilation: HRV commissioning report: at minimum, the report must include the following: description of the property, location/address of the building, name and address of the …
21 March 2019 Scoop: Coastal Home for Sale Provides the Best in Energy Efficiency
“A Beachlands house, the first Passive House Plus in New Zealand to be awarded a 10 Homestar built rating, has been put on the market for sale.Built in 2014, the four-bedroom/three living room modern house at 23 Reliance Crescent was designed to be one of the most energy-efficient in New Zealand.The two-storey, 270 square metre home on a level 860 …
21 March 2019 The Fifth Estate’s David Thorpe: Ways to finance deep energy retrofits from around the world
This is a good top level summary of efforts around the world to do deep energy retrofits. These deep retrofits are one way to approach the fundamental issue of lock-in. Lock-in is where you make a small improvement that is cost optimal now, i.e. upgrading single glazed windows to double glazed windows, while the long term optimum is to upgrade …
Future climate considerations in Passive House Planning Package (PHPP)
Passive House Institute has released a climate morphing tool for use in examining future climates and building resilience. I’m particularly fond of this approach which simply takes an increased summer temperature and increases the dry bulb temperatures throughout the year. After working with more detailed analysis from Meteonorm (which we use for detailed analysis including hygrothermal modeling) and other future …
28 February 2019 The Gisborne Herald: Real Health Difference
“I remember a young family who had about seven children, who told us they would often be taking a child to hospital at least once a week, due to the house being freezing cold.” For those folks not lucky enough to live in New Zealand Gisborne is in the North Island of New Zealand with nice warm summers. News like …
27 February 2019 Warm Healthy Homes Related Blogs
With the government finally raising the standard for existing homes in an attempt to lower the horrible health impacts for tenants of cold homes there has been quite a bit of media. I’ve also personally witnesses cold new build homes as well – typically because I was invited to look at them by their new owners who don’t understand why …
27 February 2019 Scoop: New healthy homes standards are just the beginning
We have a lot of homes to fix in NZ and Sustainability Trust is estimating that “100,000 rentals will be exempt from installing insulation due to the cost of accessing the ceiling or underfloor.” I’m not sure they see the health care costs impacts of cold homes. It will pay for a lot of insulation. We look forward to working …
26 February 2019 Scoop: New Rental Housing Standards put improving health outcomes
“There is clear evidence to support minimum standards for indoor temperatures” “Housing quality has a tremendous impact on our health and wellbeing.” Content by Scoop.