Here’s an interesting project to keep an eye on…

In this Hastings development, one existing property is being retro-fitted, whilst eleven new homes are being built using solar panels and, in some cases, an energy storage system.

The development is a collaboration between Zen Energy Systems, Unison, Horvath Homes and Hastings District Council.

Unison is positioned to obtain a number of learnings from the project, which will help inform future development and investment decisions relating to its network.

“As more of the homes are completed, we will start to see the effects from multiple solar and energy storage systems in a compact area on the network. There are a lot of different scenarios we want to test throughout this project, so we anticipate up to three years of data collection once the twelve homes are complete and occupied.”

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This was in the NZ Herald today – you don’t have to pay the upfront cost of panels but would it work in your favour over time?

Andrew Booth, founder and chief executive of solarcity explains: “85% of Kiwis want to go solar but have been put off by the upfront cost of the panels. For the first time in New Zealand there is now a simple way to go solar with little or no upfront costs. This first-of-its-kind $0-down plan is designed to let families generate cheaper power without having to choose between helping the environment and saving money.

“We can deliver power at a price that’s 10% below the current provider and fix that price for 20 years. That’s a huge benefit when you consider the cost of power has increased by 69% over the last 10 years. Mr. Desousa is leading the way for Auckland by being the first to show that with the power of solar we can help guide Kiwis towards a sustainable energy future.”

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This review of Australia’s National Construction Code began in light of concerns that compliance with existing energy efficiency requirements in the NCC was poor.

It concluded that “Non-Compliance is too easy, encouraged and mostly after design certification”

“It also suggested that consumers were either unaware of the basic physics of thermal comfort (and therefore heedless to whether their building was performing as designed) or preferred to pay for a particular “look” rather than an energy efficient design. This makes selling sustainable building measures to a client more difficult for architects and cutting corners (and costs) easier for builders and tradesman.”

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NURSES are calling on the Scottish Government to invest more cash in energy efficiency to help prevent health problems linked with people living in damp, cold homes.

The Royal College of Nursing Scotland has joined forces with environmental campaigners at WWF Scotland and a coalition of housing, energy and consumer advice organisations to urge ministers to make improving energy efficiency a top priority.

It comes after Scottish Government figures for 2013 revealed 940,000 households across the country were classed as being in fuel poverty

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Kia ora,

The Home Performance Advisor programme has had a great year – you can see how well we’ve done above- we have increased our numbers and coverage.   We are keen to keep the numbers of certified HPA’s rising, so we have planned the first training of 2015 for March in Hamilton and encourage you to sign up yourself or colleagues.

Jo Wills and Vicki Cowan

Here’re some examples which provide a powerful and timely reminder that our individual actions—whether it’s installing LED bulbs, weatherizing your home or biking to work—can have a powerful collective impact when enough people get on board.

They also remind us, however, that individual actions don’t happen in a vacuum. In all three cases, these energy and emissions savings—savings which will have a very real benefit on these countries’ health and economic outcomes, not to mention climate change—were supported by government initiatives to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency and/or to put a price on more polluting forms of energy.

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For your info – CEN’s latest member’s newsletter is included below. Its also in the Newsletters file in the Best Practice Library

If  you’d like to share your newsletter or some news with other Hub participants let me know and I”ll be happy to post it here.

Sally

Welcome to the CEN members newsletter for February!

It’s been another busy month for CEN with the launch of the Home Performance Advisor programme a highlight.  This was held in Wellington on 20^th Feb, and despite the fog and airport closures it went ahead! There has also been a lot of work taking place on the CEN business plan, keeping in mind this is an election year, we have a big opportunity ahead of us to be heard on the issues facing the residential housing sector.  Political parties are starting to share their policy secrets which gives us a bit of insight into where their collective heads are at.   Finally there has been a number of interesting articles in the media which you will find at the end of the newsletter.

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See new report commissioned by Business NZ here: http://www.businessnz.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/76144/Sapere-report-Achieving-policy-goals-for-the-electricity-industry.pdf

Interesting to see that they conclude that fuel poverty is significant and recommend:

• a literature review to draw together whether these problems exist elsewhere and how they are being dealt with,
• data collection to determine the true extent and nature of the problem here in New Zealand
• clarify problem from a public policy perspective and identify possible solutions.

A lot of this work has already been done. (see: http://www.eeca.govt.nz/news/research-household-energy-affordability and http://igps.victoria.ac.nz/publications/files/f7937a94644.pdf) I hope this doesn’t result in more duplication.

See also RNZ news item with the author of this report: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2585209

Source: Otago Daily Times

A warrant of fitness rating system for Dunedin rental properties is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.

Otago Property Management implemented the system this week, having spent the past six months developing and trialling it with a small group of property owners.

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Many of you may be interested in this new report from the Anglican Social Justice Unit that analyses the laws that protect healthy housing in New Zealand. Link below and I will upload it to the Best Practice Library 

Source: www.paperwalls.org

“Paper Walls: The law that is meant to keep rental homes healthy.” Paper Walls is a comprehensive research report into legal health standards in rental housing. You can find it at paperwalls.org.

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