Building or Renovating? Don’t Miss These 7 Game-Changers
There is a lot of misconception around High performance, and to be fair that term can be misleading. It suggests a level that most everyday people just cannot afford, like the concept of award winning designs.
But High performance is a term used in the industry by people passionate about creating healthy comfortable homes for people, not award wining expensive projects.
High performance is a reaction to the very low bar of performance that most homes in New Zealand achieve. Our building code has become a design guide, when in fact it sets out the minimum requirements any building needs to reach in order to be legal. And public perception is that Code Compliance means a healthy comfortable home by default. The sad reality is that this simply is not true.
So instead of talking performance, I have broken down the 7 things to get right in your new home or renovation checklist to unlock health and comfort and also some other benefits that you might not be aware of.
Dry fresh Indoor air is critical for health.
The challenge facing most home owners in a code compliant home is how to get constant fresh dry air to breath whether you are aware of it or not. Our Building code relies on opening windows, which in theory might sound rational. The reality is that we don’t leave our doors and windows open all year round, we close them in winter and close up our homes when its noisy outside or when we are out and about.
The air in our homes needs to be replaced every 3 hours to be at healthy levels and to remove carbon dioxide which affects our energy levels and water vapour that affects the health of our lungs.
The only way to do this is to install a ventilation system that ensure you get fresh air regardless of the weather.
Dry air is also easier and therefor cheaper to heat, so having a controlled ventilation system not only is good for our health but can have a positive impact on our wealth.
Insulation is part of the solution – don’t shortchange yourself.
Insulation is the easiest part to get right when addressing winter comfort. Its why its such a common topic when discussing healthy homes.
Our building Code sets out the minimums that insulation levels need to be and sadly most new homes only just reach that in theory. Investigative reports suggest that our insulation levels are actually only at 75% of what we think they are.
So just increasing insulation can actually have a negative or expensive impact without beneficial results. Looking at other design factors that impact thermal comfort is the only way to ensure comfortable winters. Dry internal air and energy efficient heating systems with good ventilation work with insulation to create healthy, comfortable and cosy homes in our colder months.
And this requires a calculated Architectural approach at the design stage with energy modelling and design adjustments to get it right.
Smart Design impacts energy demand and power bills.
One of my frustrations with the majority of new homes is that our housing typology tends to create very complicated forms. What I am talking about here is the massive amount of roof junctions, wall junctions and geotmetric floro plans. This not only creates lots of expense in terms of building materials, it also creates lots of junctions that are thermall inefficient. What that means, is that are energy leaky. Our building code does little to address this as of course power hungry homes are legal.
Simple forms don’t have to be boring and if your design needs lots of corners to be interesting, then its just trying too hard. Getting a simple form that works smartly means that the power bills to run that design can be reduced without you even having to lift a finger.
Investing in understanding the power demand required for healthy indoor temperatures early on in your design process is going to give you future benefits. Other home owners will just be stuck with expensive power bills.
Avoid building a Sauna - The hot topic of summer overheating.
I have to say that I am relieved that this is getting some attention. There has been an historical push to catch the suns heat with large windows. Simply designing for one season has left many of our existing and new homes with a killer of a problem.
Once your home has heated, its very expensive and difficult to cool down. At least to heat a home you can just turn a heater on, but we cannot just turn the sun off.
This might shock some people, but outbuilding code doesn’t have a legal maximum our homes can reach. As such many homes, built only to the legal standards while claiming quality have completely ignore this critical component needed to healthy homes.
Overheating is one of the hardest elements to get right in a design and the only way you are going to have an idea of how to solve it is to use energy Modeling to design it out.
And the Passive House Standard and Homestar both use energy modelling with strict caps on how often a home can go above 25 degrees Celsius.
Remember your building a home, not a sauna.
The tap can run dry
We take water for granted in New Zealand, we live in a country where it rains a lot.
And its great to have when in abundance, but the there is a very harsh reality when it is in lack. We are at the mercy of the rain gods all the time whether we know it or not.
As our cities grow and our rainfall becomes heavier but perhaps less frequent we need to manage this resource smartly. And we can start in our own homes.
There is no requirement for smart water design in our homes in the building code. This changes when building to the passive House standard and Homestar. Each deal with in its own way, but reducing water volumes without reducing water use and recycling water where safe and feasible to so slows down the meter ticking away. Its only once we get the water bill that we realise just how much we have used and how much we have to pay,
Reducing water use doesn’t mean taking 2 minute showers or reducing the taps to be a dribble, there is a way to create this without the compromise of modern day living standards
Think ahead to monthly mortgage repayments at the start.
Building budget is a critical thing to get right. Designs will always live on the page unless there is the financial path to realise them.
The common question is how much can I borrow. That’s a good question, So lets go deeper. How much is this going to cost me every month.
Morgages on the face of it are about how much, then about how long.
Building to Homestar unlocks better interest rates, so while building better might cost you a little more in the beginning, with lower mortgage repayments and the savings of power bills, you can reduce your loan time and compounding interest on your home loan.
Affordability in our homes is a much bigger picture than just the build cost.
Value in a home is not skin deep.
This is one of my biggest disappoints in our industry, I see so many building and housing companies boasting of quality in their Architectural builds, yet I know they only just reach the legal minimiuns.
There is a frustration to know better. I think its important on points of claiming a homes value.
1. Good looking homes are just good looking homes,
2. Healthy and comfortable homes are created by design not default.
Passive House and Homestar have certification process that not only ensure the design intentions of health and comfort are actually achieved but also reward this by recognition. Certified passive Houses are listed on an international data base and Homestar give a star rating.
While you might never want to leave your Homestar and Passive House because its too comfortable, you can be happy in the knowledge that it has a mark of quality rather than a claim of value.
Thinking About Your Project?
When we change the conversation around the design brief and dig deep into the real aspirations of an Architectural Design and Build, we shift not only the realised experience but also the health and wealth of your future.
If you are thinking about a build or renovation project and any of this resonates with you, lets chat, I would love to help you in your family home journey.