The moment we have been waiting for since we started this project has finally arrived. And more…
After a monumental effort from Denise Henkenhaf and Paula Hugens from EZED in Queenstown, plus some last minute assistance from Jason Quinn at Sustainable Engineering in Wanganui, plus many more helpers and sponsors along the journey, we have been awarded one of the first Passive House PLUS certifications in New Zealand! (Actually #2, and hopefully joined shortly by another in Christchurch).
We are officially ID reference “6133_MosArt_PH_20170713_TOL”.
What we didn’t realize when we added the 8kW (32 PV panels) to the roof during construction from Power Tech, is that the Passive House Institute were getting ready to launch two new levels of Certification. PLUS and PREMIUM. The addition of the local power generation, combined with the lower energy usage of the home has allowed us to reach this coveted new level of certification. We also added higher levels of insulation during construction than what was on the original plans and modeling, and the additional assistance from the Earthwool glasswool also helped get us over the line. Once those walls are closed up, there’s no going back later! Insulate as high as you can while you have the chance.
More information on the Passive House PLUS certification can be found here.
Thank you to all the people that have helped us on this journey, and we hope that what we have done and shared will help others to create more efficient and sustainable homes in New Zealand for generations to come.
Next goal? We can get the Homestar design rating from NZGBC off the shelf, dust it off, and now get the home re-rated again under the new Homestar V4 which is due out very shortly. We have been waiting on our Passive House certification, to cross credit with the thermal performance criteria of Homestar. It will be interesting to see how the house now stacks up, perhaps an 8 or 9/10 rating, we shall see. But it’s not just about the rating scale, we’ve been enjoying the performance enhancements that were made to the house during design and construction following the process two and a half years ago, and we’re so glad we decided to go down this journey.
For those technical geeks, the full certification file can be downloaded and viewed by clicking here 3188 Certification PHA – Granted ID, or on the image below.
