5 minute read
THE PASSIVE HOUSE STANDARD
Passive House is a rigorous, proven and effective method of designing and building, resulting in highly energy-efficient and healthy buildings. The key features of a Passive House building include excellent air quality, minimal use of energy required for heating and cooling, and a comfortable temperature maintained year-round.
Celebrating its 30th birthday internationally, Passive House is a relatively new concept in New Zealand with the first Passive House being certified in 2012, and the market up until now has been small.
There are now 37 certified Passive House buildings in Aotearoa NZ. However, with the projects under construction and in the planning
Kesteven: © PHINZ. stages currently, this is on track to double in the next year and continuing to rise fast.
More than ever, we are aware of climate change and the role we can play as consumers in mitigating for this.
Certified Passive House buildings maintain optimum comfort in all the varied climates of Aotearoa NZ while only requiring 8-20 percent of the heating energy a building built to the current Building Code would require to maintain similar conditions.
The occupants of a home built to Passive House standard will enjoy a high level of comfort and wellbeing in a healthy building, and will need to use only a small amount of energy to keep their home warm and dry in the winter and fresh and cool in the summer.
Passive House Institute New Zealand, Te Tōpūtanga o te Whare Korou ki
Energy efficient and passive house design and build specialists
Recognised expertise
With over a decade’s experience creating passive homes for their clients in Canterbury, Chatterton Builders offer a range of services to suit the individual needs of their clients.
Brent Chatterton holds the International Passive House Tradesperson Certification and his skilled team have worked on the full range of passive house options, tailoring their service and sharing their knowledge to optimise performance and promote truly healthy homes.
Walking the talk
Chatterton Builders open up their own passive home to those looking to build. This provides an opportunity for clients to feel for themselves the comfortable temperatures maintained throughout the house with little to no heating and cooling, and to experience high air quality, controlled humidity, and how quiet a genuine Passive House is.
Homeowner tip
The right expertise is essential to ensure you achieve the best performing home you can within your budget. Therefore, it is important, for any project, to invest time up front with the team, including yourselves, your builder and designer, to discuss your build priorities and expectations and aligning that with your budget.
Services
⚫ Design & Build
Full range of Passive
House options
⚫ Build & Design Support
We work alongside your designer from the start
⚫ PHPP Testing (Passive
House Planning Package)
Performance analysis of design
⚫ Blower Door/Air Tightness
Testing
⚫ Structural Insulated Panels
Assembly and installation
South Island wide.
Contact us today! Ph 03 313 0103 or 027 288 7620 info@chattertonbuilders.co.nz | www.chattertonbuilders.co.nz
Passive Homes Aotearoa (PHINZ) is a charitable trust working hard to bring the Passive House standard into the mainstream in Aotearoa New Zealand.
PHINZ CEO Amy Tankard says, “New Zealanders are starting to recognise that we don’t have to do things the way we always have. We deserve to live, work and play in comfortable buildings, and we shouldn’t need to pay a fortune to heat and cool our houses.
“We also have a rising awareness of how we can live more sustainably and are questioning what changes we can make in our lives to use our resources more efficiently”. PHINZ aims to increase awareness of the benefits and opportunities of high-performance buildings based on the Passive House standard through research, education and building sector engagement. PHINZ membership has doubled in the past year, demand for training through the Passive House Academy (a project of PHINZ) is at an all-time high, and enquiries from component suppliers about how to engage with Passive House have increased significantly. A project PHINZ is very excited about is a collaboration with BRANZ to publish a handbook of highperformance construction details, set to come out this year. It is a catalogue of high performance and Passive House suitable details that are tried and tested in NZ and each construction detail comes with thermal performance, carbon impact and cost information.
This handbook should provide significant help and guidance to members of the building industry looking to plan, design and build better buildings. Attending to basic principles early on in the planning stages, and following through with these in the build make a huge difference to the performance of the building. A Passive House will aim to optimise the orientation of the building to the sun, have suitable insulation and windows for the climate, an airtight building envelope, avoidance of thermal bridges, and a ventilation system with heat recovery. “We have a proven method of designing and building houses that are energy efficient and comfortable” says Amy. “This leads to people living, working and playing in nurturing healthy spaces. That’s a really good foundation for a fulfilled life, it’s that baseline of comfort. Passive House can and should become standard in Aotearoa New Zealand.”
The Passive House standard is a proven standard with specific requirements. If building a Passive House is on your horizon, please remember to do your homework and make sure you have a Passive House certified professional advising the process.
Stuart St – Architype: © Architype/Graham Warman.
Proudly building healthier homes for New Zealand living
Phone 03 344 3126 www.nkwindows.co.nz
Find a Passive House professional
on the PHINZ website www.passivehouse.nz, find out more about Passive House by contacting PHINZ on enquiries@passivehouse. nz, and see upcoming training information at Passive House Academy New Zealand (phanz.ac.nz)
Your home is not just another building. It needs to be comfortable, delightful, effortless.
Meta Architects are Certified Passive House designers committed to creating buildings that perform and delight, now and in the future.
Our clients seek houses that work for them and their busy lifestyles. Houses that aren’t too big or too small. Houses that are comfortable and climate conscious. Houses that do not waste space, yet are adaptable for changing lifestyles and connect seamlessly to the outdoors.
We deliver these outcomes by working closely with our consultant teams and contractors, understanding that relationships are what drives a successful building process.
metaarchitects.co.nz
