Home Style Green

How important are curtains when it comes to improving the performance of your home?

As Chad Keven from Heavy Duty Curtains explains, it's not just about the drapes, the curtain track that supports the curtain can also play a big role in improving the insulation properties.

So how much extra does it cost? Tune in to find out. You might be surprised!

For more, visit: http://www.heavydutycurtains.co.nz/

Other links from this episode:

• Chad's book recommendation: Status Anxiety, by Alain De Botton
• http://www.brct.org.nz/our-projects/cosy-homes/
• Cluster NZGBC PrefabNZ NZIA Wellington event
• Green Building Week
• CEN Conference - Achieving Affordable Warmth for All New Zealand Families

Home is where the heart is. It's also where our lungs are, where our eyes and ears are, where our whole bodies, and where our minds are.

In this week's show, I read a short audio essay about why we should dream and why we should ask for, and build better homes.

Links:

• http://homestylegreen.com/greenhomedreamteam/
• http://solarking.co.nz/
• http://www.customconstruction.co.nz/

What's the impact of where all the stuff comes from that you use when creating your dream home, and how do you measure it? That's what LCA (life cycle analysis) is all about, and that's what eTool is all about. This week, I talk to eTool creator, Alex Bruce.

Growing up on a farm helped shape Alex's appreciation for the outdoors. He went on to study Mechanical Engineering and while working in remote north Western Australia, got an opportunity to get into the solar panel business.

One day someone asked Alex if it was true that solar panels consume more energy to make that what they produce in their lifetime. At the time he didn't know the answer, and set out to find out.

eTool is now available to help answer that same question for all types of products and materials that go into building your home.

References:

• http://etool.net.au/
• http://www.homestar.org.nz/
• http://www.bioregional.com/oneplanetliving/what-is-one-planet-living/
• http://www.oneplanetliving.org/index.html
• http://www.usgbc.org/leed/homes
• http://living-future.org/lbc

Book recommendation:

Making Your Home Sustainable, by Derek Wrigley

Other Podcasts:

http://www.entrearchitect.com/category/podcast/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/geoff-mcdonald-ideas-architect/id673000099

http://www.houseplanninghelp.com/category/podcast/

https://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/rnz-nine-to-noon/id174829950

https://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/rnz-this-way-up/id207987745

New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities are hosting a launch event on 20th August 2013 in Wellington for the book 'Homes People Can Afford"

The book was put together by Sarah Bierre, Philippa Howden-Chapman and Lisa Early from He Kainga Oranga, the Housing and Health Research Programme.

I discussed with Sarah, why they wrote the book, what housing affordability actually means and why it's important.

Reference

The Poetics of Space

Danny Squires and Martin Luff met on Twitter, were inspired by a TEDex video and have since co-founded WikiHouse NZ. With this project, they're setting out to change the world and to 'make things better' by design.

Links:

• WikiHouse NZ Website: http://spacecraft.co.nz/
• TV3 News item: http://www.3news.co.nz/Chch-developers-plan-jigsaw-puzzle-house/tabid/423/articleID/307657/Default.aspx
• http://blog.ted.com/2013/05/23/how-to-print-out-your-own-house/

Supporters:

• http://www.health2000.co.nz/
• http://www.madeonjupiter.com/
• http://www.pfc.co.nz/
• http://www.jnl.co.nz/
• http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle=fab-lab-wellington-officially-opened-28-08-2012

In this short, sharp episode of Home Style Green, I answer a listener question about insulating the edges of a concrete floor slab, what to do if you can't afford to install solar hot water, thermally broken windows, getting extra insulation in your walls and LED lighting.

Design Navigator is a great, online resource for calculating the thermal performance of your house plan. I spoke with developer, Albrecht Stoecklein about why he created it and a great new feature he's just added.

References

• http://www.designnavigator.co.nz/index.html
• http://www.energywise.govt.nz/resource/design-sun
• http://www.ecotect.co.nz/PDF/eecapsfs.pdf
• http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/abtcit/ec/bldsus/pdf/energy/designsun.pdf

Lisa Madarasz was frustrated by not being able to find good products for her home that were going to be good for her family and good for the planet. (Does that sound familiar?)

With so much 'eco' marketing out there, how can you tell what's truly green?

To help, Lisa created Ecodeals.co.nz

links:

• http://www.ecodeals.co.nz
• https://www.facebook.com/ecodeals
• http://www.environmentalchoice.org.nz/
• http://www.unpackit.org.nz/
• http://greenideas.co.nz/products-page/subscription/new-subscription/

What's a "Building Whisperer"?

David Bartlett leads the IBM’s Smarter Buildings initiative, helping clients create more green, cost-efficient cities, campuses, corporate offices, commercial sites, casinos, hospitals and neighborhoods worldwide. As IBM’s “Building Whisperer,” he is a vocal advocate at industry events and in media for using data analysis to better control buildings’ function and tame wasteful energy practices.

Links mentioned in today's show:

• Find more interesting people on Twitter with Vtricity: https://soapbox.vtricity.com/
• Biomimicry by Janine M. Benyus (Amazon Affiliate link): http://amzn.to/16lXaoY
• Dave's book recommendation, Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think (Amazon Affiliate link): http://amzn.to/10KjD0d
• Follow David on his own blog at: http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2012/10/meet-david-bartlett.html

ZETA Design + Build produce modular buildings inside a factory. I spoke with CEO, Howard Koenig this week to talk about why anyone would want a factory built home. Turns out there are some very compelling reasons. Listen in to find out more.

Useful links:

• http://www.zetabuilt.com/
• Michelle Kaufmann PreFab Green: http://amzn.to/12HYjJq
• http://www.ccanz.org.nz/news-ccanz.aspx?id=210
• http://earthship.co.nz/events/
• http://www.buildexpo.com.au/