Tag: high performance homes
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230: Making Houses Perform
Murray and Lee Ann Durbin know what it’s like to live in a good home. For nearly five years, they enjoyed living in the Homestar 10, Passive House Plus Certified Ideal House. The Ideal House is now one of the first Passive Houses in New Zealand to be resold. Murray and Lee Ann have moved…
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217: The Performance of Luxury
Browsing the photo gallery on Jeff Bogard’s R.E.A Homes website, ‘sustainability’ is not likely the first word that comes to mind. Can large, luxury houses actually be sustainable? This is one of the topics I discussed with Jeff, who’s been providing high performance homes for discerning clients in Saint Louis for over fourteen years. True…
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213: What’s so Good About uPVC Windows and Doors?
The uPVC window market is relatively small in Australia right now, but it’s growing fast. I caught up with Kathrin Sender, Managing Director at Integra Windows recently to find out what’s so good about uPVC windows and doors. uPVC This isn’t the first time I’ve featured a uPVC window supplier on the show (see Warm…
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210: Enduro Builders
Enduro Builders is quickly becoming one of the leading builders of high performance and sustainable homes in Australia. I met up with Jackson while he was nearing completion of another stunning home in the Adelaide Hills during a trip in late 2019. In this chat, we discussed how Jackson got into building in the first…
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196: Why aren’t more houses being built using SIPs?
Phil Nevell has a background in commerce and management. He came across NZSIP as a solution to providing warm and dry social housing. If structural insulated panels (SIPs) can be used in this way, why aren’t more people using them? Barriers to SIPS Phil suggests that engineers and specifiers might be a significant barrier to…
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169: Passive House Canada
Earlier this year, I caught up with Passive House Canada CEO, Rob Bernhardt while he was in the country courtesy of the New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors. I was keen to ask Rob what we could learn from his success in growing Passive House in Canada.
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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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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…