Home Style Green - Sustainable Design and Building

How do you make a house sustainable? Talking to the team at Sustainability House would be a good start. 

Sustainability House believe that all buildings should aim to have low embodied energy, use energy efficiently, generate electricity, collect and recycle water, be passively thermally comfortable and provide safe indoor air quality.

Sounds reasonable. 

But how do you do it?

I spoke to Business Development Manager, Mark Clayton about their services and the growing demand for sustainable buildings. 

Direct download: 108_Sustainability_House.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:26pm NZDT

Green Tomato Energy, based in Hammersmith London, is another example of a company fulfilling a fantastic need. They help people get set up with renewable energy technologies and they provide advice on low energy and Passivhaus building design.

http://homestylegreen.com/107

http://greentomatoenergy.com/

Direct download: 107_Green_Tomato.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:11am NZDT

Wally is a wireless water leak detector, and temperature and humidity sensor for your home. As CEO of SNUPI Technologies, Jeremy Jaech told me, this isn't particularly sexy, but it could be really valuable.

Direct download: 106_Wally.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:05am NZDT

What is a blower door and why would you want to use one?

We've discussed the benefits of airtightness previously. In this episode, we're jumping straight in to look at the blower door and airtightness testing.

Direct download: 105_Whats_a_Blower_Door.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:06am NZDT

Net zero homes, tiny Houses, 'Cargotecture', pocket neighbourhoods and straw bale homes. Matthew Swett likes to experiment with design. He's also an incredibly thoughtful and award winning architect. 

Matthew Swett co-founded Taproot Architects, LLC in 2001 with his wife and business partner Sarah Birger. Together they operate an integrated architecture and landscape design firm on Whidbey Island. 

Prior to starting his own practice, Matthew researched and developed sustainable design guidelines for Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum; pioneered cluster development and pocket neighbourhoods with Ross Chapin Architects; and served as a founding member and co-director for the Solar Information Center at the University of Oregon.

http://homestylegreen.com/104

Direct download: 104_Taproot.mp3
Category:Sustainable Design -- posted at: 8:50pm NZDT

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