Tag: energy efficient home
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243: Efficient Electric Home
Richard Keech lives in a zero-carbon home in Melbourne. After some time in the Royal Australian Air Force and then as a software engineering and consultant in the private sector, Richard now helps people to understand energy. Specifically, renewable energy and energy efficiency. In 2015, Richard published The Energy Freedom Home, a handbook on “how…
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114: Passive Solar Design
Peter Olorenshaw has been developing his passion for passive solar design for over 21 years in Nelson, one of New Zealand’s sunniest spots. While he does practise architecture elsewhere, like his designs, he prefers to keep it local. Passive Solar Design Peter’s tips for designing a good home include: Location – it’s hard to retrofit good…
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105: What is a Blower Door?
What is a blower door and why would you want to use one? Thomas van Raamsdonk is a home performance expert. He’s also an expert educator and can often be found touring New Zealand and Australia talking with design professionals, builders and clients about the virtues and techniques of better building. During his career of…
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How 475 can help you achieve a high performance home
So, you’ve decided you’d like a really good home. One that’s comfortable, healthy and energy efficient. That’s great, but unfortunately it’s not (yet) standard practice. Hopefully you can find a good designer to help (try this list if you like). But you’ll also need some good, non-standard products. This week I spoke with Ken Levenson…
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How to get a Passive House
In episode 30, I spoke with Elrond Burrell and asked if Passive House (or Passivhaus) was really relevant to some parts of the world. This sparked some great debate and I subsequently caught up with Jon Iliffe of eHaus to find out how to get a passive house in New Zealand. European Inspiration Jon’s training is in mechanical…
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Where do you start a sustainable house?
So, you know you want a sustainable (healthy, efficient, affordable and desirable) home, but where do you start? I’ve covered the fundamentals of what makes a good energy efficient home, but these are details. What’s the big picture? Where do you start a sustainable house? Start with ‘Why?’ In episode 91, Glenn Murdoch spoke about…