Great advice here from Palmerston North Eco Design Advisor Nelson Lebo on the right way to hang curtains.
Mar
8
Impact of Victoria’s residential energy efficiency regulations
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Here’s an interesting assessment of the success or otherwise of Victoria (Australia) energy efficiency standards for houses.
Despite the doomsayers’ predictions, “Compliance costs in terms of upgraded building design and construction not only fell below original government estimates, but also progressively diminished over time as anticipated industry learning processes kicked in. Concerns about negative impacts on housing affordability were therefore not substantiated, and there was no evidence of negative impacts on Victoria’s housing market.”
On the other hand design was a weak point. “While the average rating of new homes actually exceeded the five-star minimum by a clear margin at building permit stage, design responses to the performance-based requirements were sub-optimal. Building designs were brought into compliance through the shortcut of re-specifying existing designs rather than actually re-designing homes to take advantage of the performance-based code.”
Mar
2
Don’t do a half pie renovation – it gets locked in
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This article is all about why it’s better to save and do a high performance renovation, rather than incrementally adding lower levels of energy efficiency measures.
“the “lock in” effect is acknowledging that most buildings that undergo a moderately efficient renovation are not likely to be renovated again for another 50 years, given the financial strain on owners to recover the original renovation investment cost. In other words, you will not re-replace the windows in 10 years, even if you understand window specifications better then than you do now. Your replacement windows have “locked in” a moderate level of efficiency for the long term”
Feb
25
Mapping Scotland’s green home potential
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Scotland has developed a portal for those in the home energy efficiency sector which combines Google Maps and the House Condition Survey.
“The portal uses Google Maps to visualise data about how many homes in a specific area of 100-1,000 properties have specific characteristics—for example are off-gas or have uninsulated cavity walls”
