Category: Fundamentals
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Home is Where the Heart is
Home is where the heart is. It’s also where our lungs are, where our eyes and ears are, where our whole bodies, and where our minds are. The home is where we are, for 70-90% of the time. Think about that. The average person spends about three quarters of their day, in their house. The…
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What’s a Building Whisperer?
What’s a ‘Building Whisperer’ and what do they have to do with making better homes? This is something I wanted to find out when I got the opportunity to talk with David Bartlett, Vice President IBM Smarter Buildings. David Bartlett is passionate not just about making buildings better in their own right, but improving how…
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Why You Can’t Rely on the Building Code
If you’re reading this, then you’re interested in building a home that performs well. And if you want a home that performs well, you can’t rely on the Building Code to achieve this. This is because, in my opinion, the Building Code has very little to do with sustainability or actually building a good home.…
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How to Insulate a Concrete Floor Slab
UPDATE: Check out this article for a list of slab edge insulation solutions, and episode 125 for my interview with Henry Edney of MAXRaft. The first thing to consider when looking into different types of concrete floors is why it’s so important to insulate the floor slab. To do this, we need to consider where…
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Housing is a Health Issue
Poor quality housing is housing that doesn’t do it’s job well. So what’s the job of a house? I think it’s to keep us warm, dry and healthy. These are the basics. Above that it’s a place for us to live; grow, entertain, learn, rest and share happy times with friends and family. Perhaps sometimes…
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13: Do you need a home ventilation system?
About 10% of New Zealand homes invest in some form of retrofitted home ventilation system. But do you really need one, and if so, what for? In this cast I talk about how to tell if your house is leaky or air-tight depending on it’s age, two basic types of home ventilation systems and…
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Episode 12: Wrap up of the NZGBC Master Classes
LED Lighting, ventilation, construction waste management (and how to save a bucket load instantly on construction costs) and thermal modeling using 3D simulation software, are just some of the topics covered in day 2 of the NZGBC event held in June 2012. This is the second and final part of my Skype conversation with Verney…
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Home improvements for under $100
It seems that a lot of the big gains to be made in improving warmth, comfort and efficiency, come with a big price tag. But what about some of the small stuff? There are a whole bunch of really cost effective ways to improve the performance of any home. The other day, I picked up…
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Why are New Zealand Homes so cold and unhealthy?
The inside of many (most?) New Zealand homes is pretty cold and damp. It’s no coincidence then, that New Zealand also has one of the highest rates of asthma in the OECD. Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman is perhaps the countries leading expert in the connection between our housing stock and our health and I was privileged…