Innovative, Energy Efficient Housing Needed Urgently

-

I currently organize Green Drinks for Invercargill, this is an apolitical social group that meets monthly in a local cafe. This was originally started by Invercargill Transition Towns as a way of connecting all those who share similar green ideals, aspirations and lifestyles. We often invite people with expertise in a given area or have a particular theme, but mostly we just enjoy talking to like minded people about topical issues or life in general.

I have decided to have energy saving houses as a theme this week as many people I know are building new homes and trying to make them as energy efficient as possible. My youngest sister and her husband have relocated and refurbished a house onto a few hectares of land and will be off the grid and largely self sufficient. They wanted to install a composting toilet and recycle all their grey water but the costs of local body compliance has been huge and they have had to compromise on many of their ideas that would have worked had they not been so expensive to progress.

I have tried to make my own early 30s bungalow more energy efficient and we have installed solar water heating and have underfloor and above ceiling insulation. I found the paperwork and compliance costs for the water heating excessive and can understand why solar heating hasn't got much support for those wishing to retrofit. I also felt rather discouraged when I completed a Homestar energy efficiency survey of our house only to discover that, after all that we had done, we still only scored a 2 out of 10. If we only got a 2 then many homes in Invercargill must be 1 or 0, we have a long way to go to bring our housing up to anything like a reasonable standard.

The government has no commitment to improving the quality of New Zealand housing and we have a huge shortfall of low cost, quality homes in Auckland and Christchurch especially. I'm sure, given the quality of our architects and designers we could come up with some great housing solutions, our students even got a third placing in a eco home design competition in the US recently. Our housing is generally overpriced, inefficient and poorly designed and I thought the links and images below may help to show what we could be doing:




Comments

Draco TB said…
What needs to be done is to make Passive House standards mandatory for new buildings. Throw in mandatory minimums for solar water heating and power generation and we'd go a long way to getting sustainable housing.
July 24, 2012 at 4:42 PM
Dave Kennedy said…
Agree, Draco, we also need to just get on with building heaps of houses built to those standards around the size of the old state houses. Most of the new houses being built to day are inefficient because they are just too big and unaffordable.
July 24, 2012 at 6:06 PM
Solar Installer Boston said…
I'm sorry to hear that the government has little to no interaction with real estate and home security assurance and efficiency, but the homes do look a little cozy, even if that is found offensive. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to live in a tiny cottage in Australia, away from the American life.

-Sharone Tal
July 25, 2012 at 4:01 AM
energyces said…
Nice effort to make energy efficient homes. I liked this blog so much. If you are interested to know about best
energy saving solutions then you can also consult energy efficiency consultancy of energy CES for most effective results.
October 17, 2018 at 8:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The US is actually unique for not valuing life!

-
Image
"...that’s what sets America apart from every other country; we value life. That is what makes us unique.” - Sarah Sanders There is a high level of delusion operating in the White House. The stream of mistruths that come out of President Trump and Sarah Sanders' mouths are clearly blatant lies but millions of US citizens believe them. With daily diets of Fox News and living in a very insular culture , there is little that challenges these false perceptions of US "greatness".  When comparing the United States of America with most other developed nations it becomes clear that it probably places less value on life than most and doesn't compare well with many developing countries too: If the US really valued life then it would abolish the death penalty, it is the only Western Country that executes people under law ( 23 people were executed in 2018 ).  If the US really valued life then it would have an equitable and universal health care system. The cur
Read more

The Destruction of New Zealand's Public Education System

-
Image
In 2008 New Zealand was internationally ranked in the top seven for educational achievement, and when you compared us with other countries that were also culturally diverse and experiencing growing inequality, we were extremely successful. At that time our Early Childhood sector had received a much overdue boost in funding from the Labour Government after being underfunded (as a % of GDP) compared to other OECD nations for years. The sector was working towards a target of having 100% qualified teachers in all centres. We were also in the process of implementing a new National Curriculum and a complementary curriculum for Maori ( Te Marautanga o Aotearoa ). Teachers were excited about putting all their energies into the new ideas and approaches that were espoused in these co-constructed documents that had taken around seven years to review and write. Evidence, research and practitioner input had created something that would allow us to prepare New Zealand children to become
Read more

ANZAC DAY REFLECTIONS

-
Image
I find ANZAC Day creates a dilemma for me, consequently I rarely attend dawn parades. I fully support people recognising the human cost of wars and remembering family members who lost their lives on battlefields. A grandfather of mine fought in WW1 and was gassed in the French trenches, which compromised his health for the rest of his life. His wife (my grandmother) lost her young brother in WW2. The sacrifices and human costs of war should never be minimalised. However, while speeches at ANZAC parades are full of statements promoting peace and the futility of war, those who campaign hardest for peace, promote nonviolence and call for weapons reductions are often treated like criminals. Anyone who dares to mention our own war crimes or that of our allies are generally shut down or demonised. It has become a sort of cultural heresy to question the reputation and glorification of the ANZACs.  I would love to see greater balance in how we talk about war and properly recognise those who ha
Read more