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An Ōrewa family is inviting people to experience what a certified Passive House feels like first-hand.
Andreas and Anna Goetz’s two-storey home is one of only two certified Passive Houses in New Zealand with a guest room available to book, and the owners say they want to give people the opportunity to experience the building standard rather than simply read about it.
“We’re not builders or architects. We’re just a young family and homeowners passionate about inspiring others by sharing the feeling of a genuinely healthy home,” Andreas Goetz says.
He said the home recently recorded an indoor morning temperature of 19°C when it was just 1.3°C outside, and this was achieved without using any heating.
Goetz says cold mornings provide a useful demonstration of the home’s performance, with its airtight construction and mechanical heat-recovery ventilation system helping maintain a consistent indoor environment for his family.
The home is designed to be highly airtight, recording just 0.6 air changes per hour in pressure testing. A mechanical ventilation system keeps fresh air circulating through the house while removing stale air. Goetz say this compares with five to 20 air changes per hour in a typical new-build home in New Zealand.
Passive House is a building standard established in 1991, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, airtightness, ventilation and maintaining a comfortable indoor environment.
The Ōrewa home has four bedrooms and three bathrooms and uses 14 Aiko solar panels. Goetz says their energy data shows the home usually generates more electricity than it consumes, with winter being the exception. Certified Passive Houses can use up to 90 per cent less heating energy than conventional buildings.
However, for Goetz and his family, the experience is about more than energy efficiency.
“It is a human right to have a healthy home,” he says. “Housing is more than shelter; it’s a foundation of dignity, well-being and human rights. Our home embodies this principle – delivering a living environment that is healthy, comfortable and built to support people, not make them sick,” he says.
The guest room is intended to allow people considering building, buying or retrofitting a home to experience the standard themselves.
“It’s always different if you experience it first hand,” he says.
Goetz says the opportunity is open to anyone interested in Passive House, including homeowners, architects, builders and others wanting to learn more about the standard.
More information about the Ōrewa home and its guest room is available at wunderbar-passive-house.org
