Category: Passive House
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158: Why should we be watching China?
One of the most surprising aspects of the recent 20th International Passive House Conference in Darmstadt, was the Chinese presence. Elrond Burrell estimates that nearly 200 of the 1,000 delegates were from China. Why the sudden uptake of Passive House in Asia, and what does this mean for the rest of us? Elrond Burrell Elrond…
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153: Simple is the New Smart Home
What makes a ‘smart home’? Paul Dowsett and his team at Sustainable.To are dedicate to creating affordable, healthy and energy efficient homes, because that’s what Paul believes is ‘the right thing to do’. I think that a pretty good definition for a ‘smart home’. And the best way to achieve it? Keep it simple. Simple…
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151: Passive House is Here
There’s so much that could be said about two days of great Passive House presentations in Melbourne, but I’ve challenged myself to boil it down to one point per presentation. If there was one takeaway from the second South Pacific Passive House Conference, it was that Passive House has arrived in the Southern Hemisphere…
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150: Energy Efficient Homes in Canterbury
Glenn Harley is a builder of energy efficient homes in Canterbury. After being attracted to the natural, healthy feel of strawbale construction, Glenn now produces high performance homes with lots of insulation and airtight envelopes. Among his recent achievements is building Christchurch’s first Passive House. The Cost of Building Glenn points to the cost of…
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149 Collective Carpentry
In the town of Invermere, about 3 hours west of Calgary in British Columbia, there’s a workshop where high performance, energy efficient homes are constructed all year round, regardless of the weather. The workshop is home to Collective Carpentry, a small but inspiring building company doing great things. Collective Carpentry When first got in touch,…
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145: How to build a passive energy home
Dennis Dowling produces finely crafted, passive energy homes in Queenstown. What’s a passive energy home? Basically, it’s a good quality one. If you’re looking to build a healthy, energy efficient home, then you want to find a building company like DCD. Part of my mission here at Home Style Green is to find these builders…
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144: A System for High Performance Homes
Beattie Passive is a complete system for high performance homes. I love the concept of ‘a house as a system’. I also love the idea of making it simple and easy to get right, and that’s exactly what Ron Beattie has done. As explained in their technical information, “The Beattie Passive system achieves superior levels of…
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141: Are Passive House and Green Building Relevant in a Temperate Climate?
I love Rich Williams’ enthusiasm for what he does. Even if you don’t live in the temperate climate of San Diego, you can learn a lot about the relevance of concepts like Passive House for a better performing home. Alliance Green Builders are dedicated to ‘building tomorrow’s homes for today’. As well as being Passive…
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136: Thermal Mass Is Not That Useful
I recall visiting one of the fist 8 Homestar homes in Christchurch and being surprised that this new show home had a suspended timber floor. The double layer of insulation gave the floor a very impressive R-value, far better than any concrete floor slab I’d seen recently. All well-and-good, I thought. But thermally, surely it couldn’t be…
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121: The Sociable Kitchen
Ever noticed how people always seem to ‘turn up’ in the kitchen? Chris Larson definitely noticed this and has developed the concept of the sociable kitchen as a principle of his house design philosophy. He’s also in to making passive solar homes beautiful, which I love. Check out Chris Larson Architecture. Thanks to Pro…