“It is feasible for people in government to ensure the next generation of children has more choice.Building standards need an overhaul. We are lagging behind other similar countries.Mr Twyford should be informed by open source energy-efficient housing systems like the passive house standard.It is a system that lends itself to prefabrication on a large scale, and has been used in …
03 July 2018 Australian Passive House Association: A zero-energy home is not as challenging as you might think, with the right toolkit
In this article, Clare Parry from the Australian Passive House Association points out how it’s really a simplicity introduced by Passive House that allows these homes to easily meet zero-energy by focusing on the basics of the envelope. “The Passive House standard is a proven methodology for achieving homes that have minimal operational energy requirements and provide a high standard …
06 June 2018 Stuff Piers Fuller: A tenth of New Zealand houses not fit to live in, health researcher says
I met Dr Pierse at University of Otago’s Public Health Summer School on the day of the release of the World Health Organisation’s International Housing & Health Guidelines (25 February 2019). This was nearly the same day that the Healthy Homes Guarantees Act was released. The research that went into the WHO International Housing & Health Guidelines was incredible – …
27 May 2018 Wanganui Chronicle – Home is where the heart(and the heat) is by Rachel Rose
I think the epic quote from this article could be paraphrased as “Your brand new home might still be cold, damp, and bad for your health”. I think that’s a pretty epic statement – and unfortunately accurate. You just bought a brand new home and a few months later there is mould and the power bill is actually a bit …
23 April 2018 Stuff’s Will Harvie: The applied science of super energy-efficient Passive Houses
“Building a super energy-efficient Passive House requires careful planning, design and applied science. “ “It’s just a house,” says Glenn Murdoch, design director at Theca Group. “There’s nothing special that you can see. The only thing [visible] is that the windows and doors are different.” And the other thing you don’t see is the +90% energy savings on heating or …
10 April 2018 South Pacific Passive House Conference
If you missed it, the South Pacific Passive House Conference in Melbourne this year was a fantastic conference. We participated through leading a workshop on advanced PHPP the day before the conference on Thursday as well as attending the conference on Friday/Saturday and participating in a keynote presentation on the last day of the conference (along with Clare Parry, Luc …
06 April 2018 Superhome Movement’s April Newsletter
At the request of the Superhome Movement, Sustainable Engineering Ltd. has put together a technical proposal to build the mathematical model underlying the cool Superhome housing performance dashboard. “Superhome housing performance dashboard project is gathering momentum and the project team is coming together. This is a really big task with lots of research input as well as technical and IT involvement. …
13 March 2018 Stuff’s Rexine Hawes: First Passive House concept in Matamata helping to change building industry
Good article on a great house. Brick veneer is tricky to get right without creating the potential for mould at the slab edge. This design team got it right on the first try. Cholmondeley-Smith said while still relatively unknown, passive homes were growing in popularity around the world. “More people are moving towards building healthier, comfortable homes, with lower …
14 February 2018 The Harvard Gazette’ Colleen Walsh: Your building might be making you sick. Joe Allen can help
“We watched how they made plans and decisions and accessed information relative to what was happening to see if they could be strategic in their thinking and we found really dramatic effects even from minor changes to the indoor environment,” Allen said. When developers build building they are focused on what they can rent them for; and they should be …