Tag: Passivhaus
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246: Hawea Flat Passive House
The Hawea Flat Passive House in the middle of the South Island is a very special home. It boasts a number of ‘firsts’ for New Zealand and the journey of its creation has arguably changed more than just the way Jonathan Holmes lives. Jonathan used to work for Contact Energy, where among other things, he…
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211 Energy Architecture
Guy Shaw originally trained in Architecture in Wellington, New Zealand. But it was his experience working in the UK that introduced him to more sustainable design and lead him to become a Certified Passive House Designer.
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156: Why Passive House? With Dr Wolfgang Feist
I never intended for this to become a Passive House blog site, nor did I intend to become a Passive House expert. And I don’t think either of those two things have happened, yet. I have had a number of Passive House designers and product suppliers on the show and earlier this year I was…
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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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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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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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103: It’s All About Airtightness
Derek Ward’s strength is the science that connects good design with good performance. Clioma House specialises in ‘airtightness and effective insulation’. They help bridge the gap between the drawing board and the construction site. Call the Experts, Early The sooner you think about how much you want to do in relation to performance, the cheaper…
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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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Start with Why
If you’ve listened to more than a few episodes of the Home Style Green podcast, you’ll notice that I like to start with why? My favourite first question to designers and architects is ‘why do you what you do‘? Simon Sinek – Start with Why Glen Murdoch is a Passive House designer and innovator, based…