The building code is the worst house you're legally allowed to build, yet it's often treated as the target.

In this episode, I walk through some building envelope basics and discuss where I think you should invest the most to improve the health and comfort of your new home.

http://homestylegreen.com/166

I usually interview designers and builders about what's going on overseas, with a focus on what the New Zealand industry could learn. In this episode, I speak with Damon Gray and Andrew Chapman of NZ Builders. They've turned this idea on it's head and have taken some NZ techniques to British Columbia, with some stunning results.

http://nzbuilders.com
http://homestylegreen.com/165

I love it when I find new companies that are looking at the design and building process a bit differently and who want to provide healthy, energy efficient homes. That's what Nook is all about. I caught up with their designer, Warren Clarke recently and asked him why he does what he does.

http://nook.nz
http://homestylegreen.com/164

Walls (and roofs and floors) of buildings have become complicated. As we’ve increased the level of insulation, we’ve created some new problems, like condensation. This has been aggravated by the addition of layers into the wall that reduce air movement. So how do you create a wall that keeps you warm but will also stay dry? I spoke to Jon Davies from Pro Clima to get some facts about airtightness.

http://proclima.com
http://proclima.co.nz
http://proclima.com.au
http://homestylegreen.com/163

When I first saw the LUNOS is didn't really believe it was a true heat recovery ventilation system, so I sought out some answers.

Wayne Delport is Sales and Technical Manager at The Heating Company International.

http://bit.ly/HSGLunos
http://homestylegreen.com/162

Imagine having a Fitbit for your home and being able to see, in real time, how it's performing. You could also be notified of any hazards like high levels of CO2 and VOCs as they occur - before you start to get a headache or start having respiratory problems.

This week I speak with Dustin Jefferson Onghanseng, a cofounder of uHoo, an exciting new product that could be the Fitbit for your home.

http://uhooair.com/
http://homestylegreen.com/161

A first step in making a home healthier is to understand and quantify what might be making it unhealthy. Through her website, Caroline Blazovsky has made it very easy for homeowners to test indoor air quality and test for mould.

http://www.healthyhomeexpert.com/
http://homestylegreen.com/160

Darryl Sang is one of only a few Certified Passive House Designers in Auckland. We discuss why he went through this gruelling training and why more of his clients are demanding Passive House standards.

http://homestylegreen.com159
http://sangarchitects.com/

Why should we be watching China and what does the growth in uptake of Passive House there mean for the rest of us? We also discuss near zero energy regulations in Europe, developments in the US and Passive House examples from Spain.

Passive House expert and architect Elrond Burrell give us his highlights from the 20th International Passive House Conference.

http://elrondburrell.com/
http://homestylegreen.com/158

I originally contacted Hitesh Mehta to talk about sustainable landscape architecture, but he offers a lot more than that. Hitesh has travelled the world advising and helping designers of ecolodges. He enjoys all aspects of architecture as well as photography, environmental planning and writing.

To find out more about his recent work, visit Hitesh Mehta Design.

http://homestylegreen.com/157

Wolfgang Feist is attributed as the co-founder of Passive House along with Bo Adamson. Feist, a German physicist collaborated with Adamson from Sweden in 1988 to developed a number of ultra-low energy research buildings.

Passive House is now 25 years strong and at the time of recording, Wolfgang was preparing to attend the 20th International Passive House Conference back where it all began in Darmstadt, Germany.

http://homestylegreen.com/156

It’s tempting to say that Prefab’s time has come, but I don’t think this does justice to prefabricated building. As Pamela Bell has explained previously on the Home Style Green Podcast, Prefab is not new. But the enthusiasm shown during this week’s PrefabNZ CoLab event here in Auckland suggest that prefab will play an increasingly important role in the delivery of buildings.

Some would even go so far as to say, there’s a revolution about to happen!

Here are some of my highlights from a well attended and inspiring conference.

http://homestylegreen.com/155

Adaptive architecture and innovative insights from California, with Matthew Baran of Baran Studio Architecture.

http://www.baranstudio.com/

http://homestylegreen.com/154 

Paul Dowsett and his team at Sustainable.To are dedicate to creating affordable, healthy and energy efficient homes, because that's what Paul believes is 'the right thing to do'.

And as for the extra cost? Listen in to find out...

http://www.sustainable.to/
http://homesteylgreen.com/153

Remember when the main choice you had for light bulbs was 60 Watts or 100 Watts? Things have progressed a long way since then, and mostly for the better, especially when you consider that the average incandescent light bulb is only about 10% efficient. Most of the energy ends up as heat rather than light.
Now we've transitioned through compact fluorescents (CFLs) to light emitting diodes (LEDs), there's a lot more to understand about what makes a good light.

In this episode, I speak with David Maunsell from Switch Lighting to uncover the details about why some LEDs are much higher quality than others. Unfortunately it's still the Wild West out there in lighting retail land. Hopefully this can help you figure out what's important for lighting.

http://www.switch-lighting.co.nz/
http://homestylegreen.com/152

There's so much that could be said about two days of great Passive House presentations in Melbourne, but I've challenged myself to boil it down to one point per presentation. If there was one takeaway from the second South Pacific Passive House Conference, it was that Passive House has arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and it's going to grow, because it works!

http://homestylegreen.com/151

Glenn Harley is a builder of energy efficient homes in Canterbury. After being attracted to the natural, healthy feel of strawbale construction, Glenn now produces high performance homes with lots of insulation and airtight envelopes.

http://harleybuilders.co.nz/

http://homestylegreen.com/150

In the town of Invermere, about 3 hours west of Calgary in British Columbia, there's a workshop where high performance, energy efficient homes are constructed all year round, regardless of the weather. 

http://collectivecarpentry.com

http://homestylegreen.com/149

Graham Hunt goes into a lot of detail when researching the local climate that will impact the comfort of a home. Designing for your climate includes an analysis of both the macro - the temperature, rainfall and humidity of the region, but also the micro - the local wind, shading and exposure of a particular site.

We discuss why this is important and how to do some of the basics.

http://homestylegreen.com/148
http://gehunt.com.au

Who's the most influential person in a real estate development, the architect, the owner, the builder...? What about the developer?

Real estate developers are often seen as the bad guys, out to make a bunch of money without really caring about the quality of homes of lifestyles resulting from their work. Steve Glenn's philosophy however is that developers have a huge potential to control what gets created in real estate and he's passionate about creating a good product. The mission of Living Homes LLC is "...to create homes and communities that inspire people, foster family and community interaction, and make modern life easier, healthier and more comfortable..."

http://livinghomes.net
http://homestylegreen.com/147

Angus Crowe believes that you definitely can afford an architect. In fact, you can't afford not to have one.

Learning from design homes in the tropics, Angus now uses a combination of orientation, cross flow ventilation, thermal mass and above all - 3D modelling to produce healthy, comfortable homes.

http://homestylegreen.com/146
http://truenortharchitects.com.au/

Dennis Dowling creates finely crafted, passive energy homes that you’ll love. From energy efficiency and budgeting advice, through to high quality, Passive House standard construction, DCD offers a turn-key approach to building.

I initially contacted Dennis for a comment about why he choses to use pro clima products, but when he started to describe his approach to building homes, I had to turn on the microphone!

http://homestylegreen.com/145

http://dcd.co.nz/

Beattie Passive is a complete system for a high performance home. I love the idea of thinking of a house as a system. I also love the idea of making it simple and easy to get right, and that's exactly what Ron Beattie has done. 

http://homestylegreen.com/144