Traditionally, when talking about the quality of a home we have generally been referring to the design and finishes of the building. More recently however, there are a few factors that have become more important when considering the overall quality of our structures. These centre around how your home ‘performs’ and how your home affects your health.
Passive Design is becoming increasingly popular as awareness around the health of your home increases. Passive design has taught us that we can create homes that are healthier, with longer lifespans, without needing a huge amount of effort or spending large sums of money on items such as heating/cooling systems.
Photo: ISTOCK
Building quality
Water is a Builders worst enemy. Modern building practices have changed in the last few years however, the industry overall is slow in catching up. We are able to build structures that keep water out better than ever before and new Sarking products on the market allow moisture to escape the house, while not allowing water in, actively drying its interior.
By keeping a house dryer, we are able to eliminate rot, mould and decay from taking place, which increases the lifespan of the building, and consequently benefits the health of the occupants. Whilt this outlay can cost a little more initially, when you consider the amount of years this adds to the lifespan of the building, can you afford not to do it?
Airtightness
You may have noticed the prevalence of vents in the design of older Australian brick homes. These brick vents allow for the external air (and moisture) to flow in and out of the home, essentially making our homes more like tents than houses. We are learning that by making houses more airtight, we are better able to control the temperature, humidity, air quality and sound transference.
Insulation
Most older homes in Australia have little to no insulation. By improving the quality of the insulation in our homes, we can create spaces that stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter. You don’t need a lot. It just has to be done right!
Thermal Bridges are places where the external temperature can be transferred from the inside of a building to the outside (or vice versa) through the materials or structure of the building. This temperature transfer can also cause unwanted spots of condensation, which should be avoided at all costs. This issue can be combated by covering the studs of a building with insulation – this can be added to the wall system during a new build, or a layer of insulation be added inside or outside the home in a renovation.
Windows and doors
In Australia, double glazing is often regarded as a new technology that only the wealthy can afford however, this practice has been standard in most other countries in Europe and America for decades. While prices for this remain high in Australia, this is mostly due to the demand not overcoming the single glazed market (yet).
Double glazing your windows and doors can solve many problems with air leakage and condensation whilst providing the obvious increase in thermal performance. Total replacement isn’t the only option when renovating anymore, as some older windows can be retrofitted.
Ventilation
This is where we see magic. Once we have homes that are dry, “thermally decoupled” with good quality windows and insulation we can start to control the quality and temperature of the air inside. This is done through ‘heat recovery ventilation’. We can take air from outside and push it past air from inside through a special box without the two air streams ever touching each other. This brings in new clean air that is heated to the same temperature as the inside air, while simultaneously expelling the used air out of the house.
Therein the health benefits lay. We can make sure the air we breathe whilst inside the home is the optimal temperature, humidity and is clean and filtered of any external pollution. The magic part? All this can be done with the power of something equivalent to a hair dryer… for an entire house! None of us need to be told how expensive it is to heat and cool our homes at the moment.
Photo: Passive House Institute
A passive house requires a level of certification that has extremely high standards. The airtightness, windows, heat recovery, ventilation and energy usage all have to be “certified passive” for it to be considered a true passive house.
In saying all of this, certification isn’t everything. If we can work towards including passive principles in the design and build of our houses, we can start to bridge the gap between our current homes and those that are considered true ‘high performance homes’.
Like any industry, change doesn’t come easily. Meaningful change is brought on by market conditions, so by demanding more out of the people that design, build and manufacture our homes, we can slowly work towards creating a healthier living environment.
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