By admin

New Zealand most energy efficient house ever

 

Here’s a question as we come into winter: What do you expect your average electricity billto be?  A couple of hundred dollars a month?

Maybe you’ve got a big house that’s hard to heat and it ends up costing $300 to $400 a month.

Tonight, Campbell Live wanted to show viewers a new three-bedroom home that when completed, will be New Zealand most energy efficient house ever; a house claimed to be so efficient, the electricity bills are predicted to be nothing.

The big question: why aren’t all new homes built to this standard?
John Sellwood travelled to the suburb of Addington in Christchurch to meet the builders, architects and owners of a house with a Homestar rating of nine – a rating that has never been given before.

Think long term, think efficient homes

Claims by Canterbury architects that building new homes to be energy and water efficient would add $15,000 to the cost of home building are exaggerated and short-sighted.

Late in 2014 the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) in Canterbury challenged proposed new rules in the Christchurch City Council’s district plan that would require new homes to be built to a minimum Homestar 6 rating. They claimed this would add unnecessary cost to the building process. If the Building Code doesn’t require these levels of performance, why should Christchurch City Council?, they asked.

Doesn’t have to cost a lot. The assertion that building a new home to reach a Homestar 6 rating would make it unaffordable looks only at the purchase price. Compared to a typical Christchurch house, Architects Jasmax calculated the additional cost to build a Homestar 6 home would add a little under $6,500. That’s around 2%.

Bob-Burnett_Cat1_8-star-Mod-House_w1i

Success Stories 8 Star

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER Bob Burnett of Eversun Homes has overseen the completion
of two innovative and affordable eco-homes designed to achieve an 8-star Homestar rating, making them among the
more energy-efficient homes in the country. assume, given the size of the footprint. Burnett says they are targeting zero energy
use through excellent thermal design and the use of PV solar panels to provide more than enough power.

The other is a 152 m2 2-storey home built using insulated precast concrete panel thermomass construction carefully detailed to eliminate thermal leakage, for example, bolts are nylon instead of steel to avoid thermal conductivity. It too features PV solar and
high-performance glazing and has a solar wall (collector) to prewarm fresh air, which is then fed into an ERV (energy-recovery
ventilation system). Both houses incorporate key dimensions and features of the Lifemark standards for
enhanced functionality and safety for all ages and abilities.

Thicker wall framing standard The timber homes Bob Burnett designs have thicker wall framing as standard. These are
multi-purpose – they improve thermal An environmental home integrated into bush at Allandale, Banks Peninsula.
Two 8-star homes The first is a modest 113 m2 timber-frame home with four bedrooms and two bathrooms (see cover). Variations in ceiling heights provide a perception of space making it feel larger than you would

Church square 01_

Exemplar Demonstration Project, NZ’s First 10 Star homes

The project provides a model for a new standard of housing expected to influence the Christchurch affordable housing rebuild market. Warm, dry, and healthy, energy efficient and environmentally sound. These 10 star homes demonstrate innovations and future-proof options of energy efficient environmental design.

They are to be used as demonstration homes and as a communication tool for a new initiative which brings together industry expertise in the energy efficient, environmentally sound home design and construction with the target to construct 1000 homestar 7 or above homes in 3 years. These 10 homestar rated homes also demonstrate the varying levels of specification that may be implemented for 6, 7, 8, 9 stars with associated levels of build costs and running cost which consequently have differing payback periods and end property values.