Our first Passivhaus project was built in NZ in 2011/12. This project was a pioneer for the Waikato region, and the clients were, and still are, passionate ambassadors for this type of housing. The project was well-planned, managed and built, however were the results going to align with what our software and experience were telling us? We needed verification, and the best way we can do this is to install temperate sensors throughout the home and monitor the performance over several seasons and years. We were very lucky that the owners of the home were skilled in this area and a system was installed to monitor the temperate throughout several rooms within the home, under the ground and outside the home. This provided us with an extensive amount of data to use. It provided us with a clearer understanding of what we had designed, it provided us with learning opportunities and most importantly it provided us with the ability to understand how Passivhaus worked within the New Zealand climate, which is different to where it originated in central Europe.
Read MoreWhat is a high-performance home?
High-performance is part of the sustainability conversation we have with all of our clients from the outset. It is a critical component of the building design that provides the long-term efficiency of your home. It is also very important to consider and incorporate the other areas of sustainability, such as environmental products, low waste, landscaping, people, etc. It is such a large topic and there are many solutions or areas that can be used.
At TAWA, high-performance is designed into all of our building designs, whether it be in the form of a certified PassivHaus, solar-passive home or commercial project. This is where we focus intensely on the building envelope. Our extensive experience in designing high-performance homes in New Zealand over the past 10 years and our specialised Passivhaus software enable us to provide tangible performance-driven results. The key with this approach is that it uses the unique climate data from your site so that the conversations about performance can be accurate, and happen before you start your build, therefore allowing projects to be priced and conversations about building performance and cost to be held early.
The performance conversation is just one part of the equation; the project still needs to meet your architectural and design requirements. No two homes we have designed have been the same (to date), so this approach allows us to be flexible in the design of the home, but keep this conversation at the forefront. We utilise several different products and strategies to achieve the agreed performance gains, and we tailor this to each client.
What we are trying to achieve in a high-performance home is to balance the “gains” with the “losses” so that we keep the internal environment of your home as even as possible with little to no heating requirement. This therefore reduces on-going livings costs, and improves the living experience that comes with being in a high-performance home, or Passivhaus.
Gains are the sum of the heating gains for a project, such as; sun-light entering the home, occupants and heating sources. The losses are a sum of the heating lost through the walls, roof, floor, ventilation, etc. The designers skill and experience comes to the forefront in maximising the gains, and the technical understanding of constructing homes for performance is where the losses are managed. Below is a simple example of what that could look like for a home.
We encourage you to start having conversations about performance, and demand to know what you are paying for in terms of performance for your next building.
