Building codes that ensure dwellings are built to a high standard of performance are an obvious move when thinking about reducing loads. “The cheapest time is when you first build, because you are dealing with incremental costs,” Campbell says.For example, triple glazing adds only a fraction to the cost of a dwelling but can reduce the energy required for heating …
These provincial communities need better housing and outdoor air quality as well. “There is strong evidence that Taumarunui has a pool of housing that does not meet reasonable standards and is cold, damp and prone to black mould infestation,” “These initiatives will strengthen whānau and communities, not only improving housing but also providing opportunities to learn skills, offer employment opportunities, …
“Many homes in New Zealand are cold and damp, which creates the perfect environment for asthma and allergy triggers such as mould. To help reduce this impact during the colder winter months, it is essential to create a warm, dry and pollution free environment.” So another way to put this is healthy homes prevent asthma attacks and as ~12% of …
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 …
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 …
“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 …
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 …
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 …
“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 …
