Category: Podcasts
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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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Passive Solar House in Riverhead
Ingo Ratsdorf is a registered architect now with Fat Parrot Architecture based in Auckland. He has also designed and built a passive solar house in Riverhead, Auckland. I caught up with Ingo this week and he shared his story. Having grown up and been trained in Germany, Ingo is very aware of how poorly most New…
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How to build efficient houses without extra cost
How do you build efficient code 4 houses for the cost of code 3. And how do you get industry to solve the problem themselves? Richard Buchanan is an Associate Director at BRE and Founder of Green Building Consultancy Ltd. I met Richard recently inside a LinkedIn group during a discussion about housing affordability. It…
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What is the best form of home heating?
I was fortunate to be part of the Auckland Home Show last weekend. Yes, for me this was fortunate because I like that sort of stuff – getting to see what’s happening in the industry and also talking with people about what their concerns are about their homes. I got the chance to talk to…
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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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Summit Summary
On June 27th 2012, the New Zealand Green Building Council held the inaugural Sustainable Housing Summit at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland. Last week I caught up with Verney Ryan via Skype to discuss the highlights. For more information, check out NZGBC where you can now find pdf downloads of most of the presentations. Some of…
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10: Ecobob
UPDATE: Ecobob has a whole new look and some great new features. Check out my recent interview with new owner, Kristy Hoare. I was privileged to meet Carlin Archer a few years ago in Christchurch. Back then, Carlin wanted to build an ‘eco’ house. But he wasn’t sure how and he was a bit confused…
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Episode 9: Down to Earth Real Estate
Last week I had the chance to catch up with Barb Cooper from Down to Earth Real Estate. Barb is a trained Ecobroker and also a Homestar Homecoach. She’s also a very active member of her own community, helping to organise events and publish the Paremoremo newsletter. We talked about why some real estate agents get…
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Episode 8: Interview with Verney Ryan
I’m absolutely stoked to have had the pleasure of interviewing Verney Ryan. If you don’t know who Verney is, the definitely check out this latest podcast. And if you do know Verney, you’ll already appreciate that he’s a great guy to talk to about sustainable living, so I’m sure you’ll want to listen also. Among other…