As winter approaches and temperatures drop, it can sometimes feel as cold inside as outside. The reason for this is the poor thermal performance of homes in New Zealand and nowhere is it felt so much sharper than in our neck of the woods. Shannon Thomson reported.
Cold, damp and draughty houses are a staple in the New Zealand housing landscape.
With open-plan layouts and large windows to allow for fresh air flow and cross-ventilation, New Zealand homes are designed to embrace the warm, sunny weather.
What about winter? The same characteristics affect the energy performance of the house during the cold season.
A 2019 study conducted by Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Fellow Dr Lynn Riggs, based at the University of Otago, linked New Zealand’s poor housing to more than $ 145 million in health costs per year. These costs were solely attributable to homes that were cold, damp, musty or dangerous to live in.
Central Otago holds the record for the coldest temperatures, making the problem here more acute.
However, builders and professionals in the industry are moving more and more to make homes more sustainable and efficient.
Wanaka-based CBG Quality Construction does exactly that.
An example of this is one of his youngest buildings at Galloway near Alexandra.
Owner Clint Gollop said he is a certified passive home dealer with a focus on building better and better performing homes for his clients.
“Better built homes equate to less pressure on our health system, healthier living … they are healthier, quieter, warmer, drier and just happier homes to live in.”
The Galloway house, located on more than 300 hectares of property, is an example of this.
The house of more than 300 square meters has been cut back into the hill to minimize visual impact.
“We did not want to have too much of an effect on the wider environment and you can see from the nice, soft undulating hills around there are no real sharp peaks, so we went with a nice monopitch roof so that it sits nicely in the country. .
“There are a lot of rocks and stuff around Galloway, so we decided we’ll have some shears there, some wood so we have some rustic charm in the house. The house is designed to sit well on the ground .
“Of course the environment up here is a bit more difficult, we’re a bit higher, so we did not want to build a house that would allow the customer to upload to higher power bills and really have to try to manage it. The high performance house does its job and so far at the beginning of winter … and they have not turned on any heating yet. ”
The key to the home’s performance – and high performance / passive homes in general – is the airtightness of the building.
“The airtightness is an important part of a high performance house, because if you can imagine, you can have a very well insulated house, but if you leave all your doors and windows open, the cold air is going to come in. It will have a very bad air leaking, ” Mr Gollop said.
Sea Changer New Zealand’s sustainable construction consultant Nigel Murray used a blower door test on the Galloway house and found it to be almost 40 times more airtight than the average Kiwi new building.
The move to such construction has begun in Central Otago, Mr Murray said.
“It’s been a while here, people know this thing is [high performance builds] happens and high performance and passive building numbers grow. ”
An airtight house reduces condensation and thus molds, reduces the energy it takes to keep the house warm and cool, reduces the contaminants that come from the outside of the building, he said.
“People are healthier in the building, people are less stressed, mentally and physically happier. There is a lot of research that asthma is fairly common in New Zealand because our housing is cold and damp.”
The Galloway home produced one of the best results he has tested in the Central Otago area, he said.
“Their consistency and quality show in the airtight detail work, as well as the result.”
-By Shannon Thomson