PASSIVE HOUSE BUILDERS
A home built for you to thrive.
PASSIVE HOUSE BUILDERS
A quality home built for your comfort, health and well-being.
Building a new home is a big decision. It’s exciting but can often feel daunting because there are many decisions to make. We all dream of a house that meets our needs and reflects our desires.
We all have an image of what our perfect home looks like. But what about how it feels to live in?
Our Certified Passive Homes are supremely comfortable and healthy. It will be 20-22 degrees inside all year round, in every part of the house. The air is always fresh. It never feels damp. The house has been built well, with quality fittings carefully assembled. All of this is verified by us and the Passive House Institute New Zealand (PHINZ). It’s a home in which your family will thrive.
THE PASSIVE HOME DIFFERENCE
What sets a passive house apart.
A passive house energy modelling software is used to model the different components in your home and the ways they interact with each other, accurately predicting overall building performance. The modelling might predict a cold corner on the south side of a house or that a home will overheat like an oven in summer. Budget can also be taken into account by using this software. For example, more affordable windows could be balanced by increasing insulation levels in the floor and ceiling. What you get is reliability. Passive House predictive modelling is accurate.
ACCURATE ENERGY MODELING
An uninterrupted airtight building envelope keeps warm air in during winter and cool air in during summer. It’s a crucial reason why Passive Homes need so little energy. The airtight layer prevents unwanted leakage of heat, draughts and cold spots. We pay attention to the airtightness layer throughout the whole construction process, making sure it is uncompromised. We manage sub-trades, that need to run plumbing and cabling through the airtight layer, ensuring that every penetration is properly sealed. The effectiveness of the airtight layer is verified by blower-door testing at key stages.
AIRTIGHT BUILDING ENVELOPE
Clean fresh air is guaranteed in a Passive House, thanks to a continuous mechanical ventilation system. The ventilation system is small but mighty and acts as the lungs of your home. It’s constantly removing stale, damp air from bathrooms and the kitchen and delivering fresh, filtered air to living rooms and bedrooms. A clever heat-exchange system can recover up to 95% of the energy in the stale air being expelled.
VENTILATION WITH HEAT RECOVERY
Thermal bridges are pathways for heat to travel in and out of a building. They contribute to significant indoor temperature fluctuations and can also lead to moisture and mould problems. Passive House design minimises or eliminates thermal bridges. This is a key part of why the temperature inside stays so comfortable, no matter what the weather outside.
MINIMISING THERMAL BRIDGES
Even the very best windows let more energy pass through compared to a wall and this is why Passive Homes have high-quality, very energy-efficient doors and windows. Glazing performance is typically improved in a Passive House by using high-performance spacers between the glass panes, glass coatings and argon fill.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE WINDOWS AND DOORS
A certified Passive House home is cocooned in a continuous layer of insulation. How much and where varies according to the specifics of your project and takes into account the design, your choice of materials and your specific climate zone.
EXCELLENT INSULATION
Think of it like this: what are homes designed to do? What is their function? Well, they have many: they provide shelter; they keep you warm; they are a space in which to live your life. A high performance home is therefore one that does exceptionally well at all the things a home is designed for and, crucially, does so without requiring a lot of energy. - https://archipro.co.nz/articles/architecture/what-is-a-high-performance-home-archipro
WELL-BEING FOR YOUR HOME
What is a high performance home?
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DISCOVER
Five key principles of a passive house.
DISCOVER
Five key principles of a passive house.
PASSIVE HOUSE CERTIFIED BUILDERS
We are proud to be certified passive house builders, where we can guarantee our passive homes we build will keep you warm, comfortable and help you thrive.
DISCOVER
Five key principles of a passive house.
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High performance windows
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Solar orientation
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High performance insulation
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Air tight enclosure
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Balanced ventilation with heat recovery
BUILDING A PASSIVE HOME IS BETTER FOR YOU AND THE PLANET
Energy use in buildings contributes to our country’s carbon emissions. New Zealand has committed to being a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. A Passive home is a significant way your family can do its bit towards reaching that goal.
Concept and Design.
We only work with the best, so we can connect you with some of the top local Passive House Designers/Architects to help you design your dream passive home. They will work closely with you to design a home that will meet all of the passive house criteria.
Design Review.
At this stage, your architect/designer would have modelled your dream house plans for energy efficiency, which will indicate what materials will be needed for your home. The detailed drawings and technical data are reviewed by the independent Passive House certifier. They will assess the design, flag any problems and ask any clarifying questions. At the end of this process, your project passes the pre-construction review, an important milestone. From this point, you have the security of knowing the design is correct and, if built according to the design, will result in a home able to meet its certification target.
Construction Review.
During this stage, we will assess the plans and will want to visit your site. You are guaranteed, by building with a Certified Passive House builder, that all materials on the plans won't be substituted with sub-par materials. Once we start construction, any variations made to the design are checked for their impact on performance. On-site testing and calibration is carried out. Blower door testing is done twice at different stages of construction and the ventilation system is commissioned (tested and adjusted). Key parts of the construction process are carefully recorded with photographs and supporting documentation.
Final Certification.
Certification of a Passive House isn’t something tacked onto the end of the project. It is deeply integrated throughout the design and build stages, adding significant benefit and quality assurance at every stage. The Passive House architect will provide evidence for the components used and the construction process along with results of onsite tests. The certifier reviews all of the documentation against the Passive House standard to verify the home was built according to the design and has met its performance targets. Once filed with the international Passive House organisation, a plaque and certificate are issued. Certification provides an independent, third-party review and is your assurance that you get the home you paid for.