THE FINAL STAGE

The Owners have now moved into the house.  Landscaping is underway, and finishing touches within the house continue.  Joinery fitments, electrical and sanitary fitments have been installed. 

The blog will continue, but with less frequent entries.  A professional photographer will provide final photos of the finished Passive House.  

There are some items in this house that are not essential to Passive House requirement, and are of the house owners personal choice e.g. the fireplace, photovoltaic energy generation and concrete-block walls.  The additional requirements for a Passive House is probably 10-20% more expensive than a standard build. Over time this cost will reduce as materials become more readily available, and builders become more familiar with the techniques involved. But, the ongoing lack of cost in energy consumption and personal comfort and well-being more than compensates for the initial investment in building.

RAINWATER COLLECTION

Rainwater is collected from the roof, via spouting / guttering which discharges into vertical downpipes that are run to storage tanks supplied by 'Marley'.  'Marley' diverters to prevent the ingress of debris that may be collected along the way, are fixed to outlets in the downpipe prior to the water reaching its destination - the green storage tanks.

HOT WATER

Hot water is supplied to the house from an external heat pump, which is strapped to the structure for stability, to meet NZ seismic requirements.   The STIEBEL ELTRON WWK 300A Heat Pump works through utilising the ambient air temperature (thermal energy) and converting this to usable energy to create hot water. A heat pump essentially works in a similar way to a refrigerator, only in reverse. The only primary

energy used in this process to heat water, is to run the compressor and fan. The advantages of this technology is in the benefit of being able to generate up to a 68% hot water energy use saving when compared to an electric storage hot water system.