Category Archives: Eco Thrifty Renovation

Eco Thrifty Renovation, energy efficiency

Innovation Comes in All Sizes

July 4, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

In Wednesday’s Chronicle, we saw some local examples of innovation. But innovation, like many things, is in the eye of the beholder.

When we think of the term innovation, we might think of things that are “new and improved,” or represent “a breakthrough” in technology or thinking. It all sounds like a bad advertisement on talk radio: “New and improved! A breakthrough in technology! Call in the next 30 seconds and we’ll add a second for half price!”

In many cases the breakthrough turns out to be a minor tweak of an existing product, and the innovation is actually in the OTT marketing of it. (OTT is, in and of itself, an innovation in communication technology!) From this perspective, innovation appears to be more about getting people to buy things they may or may not need than improving lives or advancing humanity toward a more positive future.

Fortunately, there are other perspectives on innovation, one of which is about doing something better. For example, coming up with a medical diagnosis technique that is less invasive for patients by using medical imaging rather than exploratory surgery. While the imaging technology would have a high up front cost, a hospital would save money over time by scheduling fewer and fewer costly surgeries. Win-Win.

Ironically, many innovations that improve some people’s lives result in a net loss of jobs by replacing other human beings with machines. While the example of replacing surgeons with MRIs and CT scans is a poor one, I recall another innovation from my childhood on the outskirts of Detroit when robotic arms began replacing auto workers and causing high unemployment in the Motor City. The next innovation by General Motors was to close plants in Detroit, Pontiac and Flint, Michigan and open plants in Mexico.

This type of innovation often enriches the innovators but impoverishes many others, and adds to the large and widening wealth gap by increasing income inequality. False narratives from self-proclaimed “Job Creators” have been proven wrong by objective analysis, but the narratives remain among the hard right just as Trickle Down Economics is still embraced despite no robust research ever confirming this weak economic theory actually works.

This all begs the question: What type of innovation actually creates jobs and keeps dollars circulating in the local economy?

I’m sure that Chronicle readers may come up with a few, but of those, which would actually lead to net job creation rather than simply employing six people in a new way only to un-employ eight people in an old way? Don’t get me wrong, I am all for creating jobs in Whanganui even if it means jobs lost in other centres. It’s just that we need to look at innovation from a holistic perspective if we want to be honest about it.

From a holistic perspective, I cannot think of a better innovation than the Eco Design Advisor Service offered by the councils of Auckland, Hamilton, Kapiti Coast, the Hutt Valley, Nelson, Invercargill and Palmerston North.

The service helps owners and renters make their homes warmer, dryer and more energy efficient. The service offers independent, expert one-on-one advice free of charge to all residents. It was created by the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ) to inform and empower anyone who lives inside of a dwelling to make the best decisions regarding energy performance, comfort, water conservation and materials. It is not hard to see how this service would help create jobs in these communities and keep dollars circulating locally.

Innovative, eh? Seems others agree. The Eco Design Advisor Service was recognised in April with the Carter Holt Harvey Innovator of the Year Award from the Building Officials Institute of New Zealand (BOINZ). Two more councils are looking at adding the programme as it goes from strength to strength.

New! Improved! A breakthrough! Act now!

Peace, Estwing

cooking, Eco Thrifty Renovation

Reducing Moisture in a Home

June 27, 2014 Estwing 2 Comments

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

No, it’s not the Tasman Sea but something even closer to home.

Many Whanganui residents wake up each morning between May and September surrounded by water as condensation covers every window of their homes. More than just a nuisance, weeping windows can indicate conditions within a dwelling that are, to put it bluntly, unhealthy.

In some homes, high humidity can be as much as a concern as low temperatures in terms of comfort and health. We all know that cool, damp homes are common across New Zealand.

Research by Beacon Pathway found the following:

• New Zealand homes are on average 6 degrees Celsius below World Health Organization recommended minimum temperatures in winter.

• 45 percent of all New Zealand homes are mouldy.

• New Zealand has the second highest rate of asthma in the world, and an excess winter mortality of 1600, a much higher rate than other OECD countries.

• 300,000 New Zealand homes have an unflued gas heater.

• The air inside New Zealand homes can be more polluted than outdoor air.

• Cold, damp homes pose serious health risks, particularly for the most vulnerable groups in the community who spend the most time at home.

Like many problems in our lives, it is more important and effective to treat the cause than the symptoms. In other words, addressing the causes of moisture inside a home is better and cheaper than investing in expensive ventilation systems, which in most cases make homes colder and drier.

The main sources of moisture within a home are as follows: cooking, showering, rising damp, unflued gas heaters, house plants, and airing laundry indoors.

Addressing each source can be done differently. For example, polythene can be fitted under a home – directly on the ground – to effectively reduce rising damp in the same way wearing gumboots keep your feet dry in a muddy paddock.

However, polythene will do nothing for the damp clothes airing in your lounge. The strategy to address this problem is simple: Don’t do it.

Water vapour released by cooking and showering can be addressed in two ways: cap it or vent it. In other words, cooking with pot lids or installing a shower dome hold steam in, while extractor fans vent steam outside.

That said, we also use certain cooking techniques that reduce steam (and energy use) by over 90%. This win-win combination, however, does require some thinking outside of the box – specifically by cooking inside of a ‘straw box’.

In a strange twist of fate, our straw box contains no straw, but instead is stuffed with Op Shop blankets and tea towels. Either way, the function is the same: insulation. Here is how it works.

One of our favourite recipes is 10-Watt Pasta. We take 500 grams of pasta and put it into the ceramic vessel of a slow cooker. Then we boil about 1.75 litres of water in the electric kettle and pour it over the pasta. Last we place the pot, pasta and water into the straw box for 22 minutes, which happens to be the exact amount of time it takes to make an excellent sauce with fresh veges from the garden.

Compare this method of cooking pasta to the traditional way, and you’ll see where that 90% reduction of power and moisture comes from. I suspect it will be highly unlikely for anyone else in Whanganui to adopt this cooking method, but for those with damp, cold homes, it’s worth considering.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, sun angles

Momentum: Both Debt and Climate

June 20, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

Today is the winter solstice – “the shortest day of the year.” This weekend marks the time of year when hours of daylight are shortest and hours of darkness are longest.

For a home like ours that is powered mostly by sunlight energy, this is not good news. But every cloud has a silver lining. Here’s what I mean.

Although the end of June marks the time when hours of daylight are shortest, it is not necessarily the coldest time of year – that comes later. In other words, as June turns to July and temperatures drop on average, the days actually get longer.

This may sound counterintuitive: more sun but colder. What’s up with that?

It all has to do with lag time, or what may also be called thermal momentum or seasonal inertia. Put simply, there is a delay in the system between energy input (amount of sunlight) and how we experience that energy (air temperature).

Most of the seasonal delay is influenced by large bodies of water: oceans, seas, very big lakes. These large bodies of water are the thermal mass of the planet – they absorb heat slowly and release it slowly. Sunlight energy is loaded into the world’s waters only for it to be released at a later date.

On a very large scale, most climate scientists say that much of the excess heat energy that the Earth is currently absorbing is going into the world’s oceans. They refer to oceans as “heat sinks.” The major concern with this situation is that the ‘sinks’ will become ‘sources’ in the future. In other words, the chickens (massive amounts of heat energy) will come home to roost (wreak havoc on us with extreme weather events).

While this energy is being stored in the oceans everything appears to us to be OK. It is a lot like running up a large debt. I suspect there were few complaints in Wanganui while council was running up our current debt while holding rates artificially low. Only now do we hear complaints.

This is the same strategy that U.S. President Bush (the second) used with the Iraq War. He did not tax Americans to pay for the war, but put it on the national credit card. There were few complaints at the time, but now after a trillion dollars we hear complaints about the “unsustainable levels of federal debt” in America.

Similarly, climate scientists continue to warn of “unsustainable levels of carbon debt,” but I suspect more and more people will echo them in the future, especially because another and perhaps more ominous delay is also built into the climate system.

Once fossil fuels are burned the carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for decades causing more and more warming. Many scientists say that even if we stopped burning all coal, oil and gas today that we would continue to experience the effects for the better part of most Chronicle readers lifetimes.

In the same way, even if WDC balanced the city’s budget next year we will all still be paying for debts racked up in the past and the accrued interest for years to come.

OK, now for the silver lining…for our house anyway. Heading into July and through August, as temperatures remain low, the increasing minutes of sunlight every day make our solar home that much warmer. Additionally, we use a ‘delay system’ inside our home to capture the daytime warmth and release it at night.

This delay is, of course, thermal mass and it acts just like the Tasman Sea outside our front door: absorbing heat slowly when it is in abundance and releasing it slowly when it is in deficit.

Understanding complex systems and their associated delays, oscillations, changes and feedback loops helps us to ‘see’ into the future and plan accordingly. This way of seeing the world is called “systems thinking,” and is at the heart of eco-design. It has helped us design and renovate an inefficient old villa into a low-energy eco-home, and it has the potential for humanity to come to grips with global climate change and unsustainable debt.

Human beings are notoriously bad at looking toward the future and planning ahead. Systems thinking is a tool to help us all look toward an increasingly volatile and indebted future, ask if it is the future we want for our children, and then decide whether we have the courage to do anything about it today.

draught proofing, Eco Thrifty Renovation, weather stripping

Draughts or Drafts? Either Way, Reduce Them.

June 6, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

Windows and doors can account for up to 40% of the heat lost from a home. In many instances, more heat passes through windows and doors than through ceilings, which themselves can account for up to 35% of heat loss.

Of course all homes are different, and there can be ranges based on the number and quality to doors and windows, and the thickness of ceiling insulation. For example, there are differences between timber windows, aluminium windows, single-glazing, double-glazing, and the R-Value of insulation.

Additionally, it matters whether windows and glass doors face north or south on how much heat they lose during winter. For example, south-facing windows emit heat from a home to the outdoors nearly every minute from May through August. On the other hand, north-facing windows can gain heat during sunny winter days and only release heat at night.

The bottom line is that in many cases glazing accounts for more heat loss than ceilings. This is significant for a number of reasons:

1) The government subsidizes ceiling and floor insulation but appears stop there.

2) Even with government funds, insulation often costs thousands of dollars.

3) Many landlords have no intention of insulating their properties.

4) Dealing to doors and windows can be done at a fraction of the cost of insulating ceilings and floors.

When it comes to doors and windows, heat is lost from a home in two ways: free exchange of air (aka draughts) and heat radiating through glazing. I have written about insulating windows with window blankets and I will write in the future about options for DIY double-glazing. Today is all about draughts, and more specifically it is about plugging them.

During our renovation, we engaged in lots of high-end draught-proofing around new windows and doors as required by the New Zealand Building Code. This involved foam and spray foam and a bit of a mess. But it works very well.

Additionally, we engaged in many low-end draught-proofing strategies on existing doors and windows that anyone can use, whether they are a renter, owner, Chiefs supporter or die-hard Hurricanes fan. Some of these strategies have essentially no associated costs while others may have price tags ranging from $4 to $20.

Approaches to draught-proofing take two basic forms. The first is using adhesive foam strips to seal narrow gaps around timber doors and windows. This product is usually cheaper than a flat white in a café, and comes in a number of colours to blend in with your paint choices.

The other strategy involves blocking the passage of air underneath doors. In my free-home-energy-audit travels with Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training) I have seen gaps as large as 2 centimeters beneath front and back doors. On a breezy Whanganui winter day, that can mean a lot of air transfer!

Blocking such draughts are about as easy as ‘home improvement’ gets. A low-cost option is to buy a draught excluder and fix it to the bottom of the door. I recommend against buying the cheapest plastic models as I do not believe they are durable. The one pictured has an aluminium strip holding a thin foam barrier.

A free option is to find a piece of off-cut ‘two-by-two’ (4.5cm x 4.5 cm) and cut it to length as wide as your door. Wrap it in a towel and tie the ends like a Christmas crack. At the end of winter throw the towel in the wash and store the wood for next year.

One final note: I have noticed on occasion cold air blowing in through power sockets on exterior walls. My suggestion in this case is to keep electric plugs in them at all times or use a baby safety plug.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, insulation, passive solar

Insulation: Not Romantic, but Essential

May 30, 2014 Estwing 3 Comments

Over the last month I have tried to enliven the discussion of passive solar design with certain musical references: Aretha Franklin, The 5^th Dimension, and the incomparable Neil Diamond.

But this week I got nothing.

As important and ubiquitous as insulation is, no one appears ever to have written a love song about it. For any aspiring singer/songwriters out there, this may be your niche.

Insulation, in a nutshell, is about slowing the rate of heat transfer. Sometimes this is called ‘thermal resistance’ and is measured by R-value. Anyone who has purchased insulation for their home will be familiar with R-value, but may not understand it completely. I often describe it this way:

Think of R-value as ‘Resistance to heat flow’ – anything that slows heat energy from flowing through it: a sleeping bag, an eider down, a Swandri, fiberglass batts, double-glazed windows, a wool blanket.

Another way I describe insulation is ‘trapped air.’ This description suits those materials listed above as well as something I wrote last week:

Water and anything that sinks in water has good thermal mass, but anything that floats in water acts more as insulation. The faster something sinks in water the more thermal mass it has, and the higher something floats in water the more insulation it probably provides. Think polystyrene.

Picture, if you can, the inside of a sleeping bag or eider down: natural or artificial fibers that ‘fluff up’ and create lots of tiny air pockets.

Now picture a double-glazed window, or look at the picture I’ve included with this column. The advantage with this example is that you can easily see the trapped air because it is between two panes of glass. With double-glazing, it is not the extra piece of glass that provides significant insulation: it is the air trapped between the two panes.

From this perspective, plastic DIY double-glazing is just as effective as professionally manufactured glass double-glazing. The picture I’ve included is actually an example of glass DIY double-glazing in our bathroom, which consists of a large, second-hand aluminium window, wooden battens serving as spacers, and safety glass as required by the building code. This is certainly an unusual approach to double-glazing, but it has performed well for us at a fraction of the cost of buying a new window of comparable size.

Another unusual but cost effective approach to ‘trapping air’ that we used in our renovation was hanging a TradeMe version of what would be called a “storm door” in North America. The picture I’ve included should be easy to interpret: one glass door open inward and one glass door opens outward. The space between doors (when closed) is the ‘trapped air’ that insulates our home while still letting free sunlight energy through. This is where “Yankee thrift” meets “Kiwi ingenuity.”

Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training) Events.

DIY Double-Glazing

8^th June, 4-5 pm. Registration Essential.

Seven easy steps to a low-energy healthy home.

10^th June, 7-8 pm.

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, thermal mass

It is Heavy, It’s Thermal Mass

May 23, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

A decade and a half before Paul Simon’s innovative album Graceland (1986) exposed Western listeners to unique and original African sounds and rhythms, the incomparable Neil Diamond did the same with the lesser known album, Tap Root Manuscript (1970). Side two of the album is called “The African Trilogy (A Folk Ballet),” and includes two of my all-time favourite Neil Diamond songs: I Am the Lion, and Soolaimon.

Side one, however, is more likely to be memorable for most people due to a series of Top 40 (US) hits: Cracklin’ Rosie; Free Life; He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother. The last of these hits – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – was ‘recycled’ from The Hollies, whose version reached No. 1 in the UK Singles chart in 1969.

Like this well-known song, our Shacklock 501 is: a favourite feature of our home; it is ‘recycled’ from another dwelling; but critically, it is very heavy. And that is the point.

Along with acting as a heating source for our home on cloudy, cold winter days, the 700-kilogram coal range/brick surround/concrete and tile hearth acts as a ‘heat sink’ on sunny winter days. In this respect, the combined heavy stuff that makes up the building code approved unit functions as ‘thermal mass.’

From a purely physics perspective, everything that has mass can absorb heat. In the extreme, air has mass so it can absorb heat. But ‘light’ things like air gain heat quickly and lose it quickly. ‘Heavy’ things, on the other hand, absorb heat slowly and release it slowly.

Water is a good example of a substance that has significant thermal mass. One of the main reasons that Whanganui has such a wonderfully temperate climate is because the Tasman Sea is a giant heat sink. While Palmerston North experiences higher highs and lower lows than our fair city, we remain comfortably in between. That is one reason we all love living here.

When I teach eco-design, I make these general statements for people to wrap their heads around:

At its heart, a good song serves multiple functions: it moves people with its beat; it engages people with its lyrics; it rewards its writer with financial success.

Designing for multiple functions is at the heart of good eco-design. A clear example of this is the placement of the Shacklock 501 at the heart of our home.

The 700 kilogram heating unit is situated approximately at the centre of our living spaces – lounge, kitchen, dining – so that the heat can radiate in all directions. While this may seem like common sense, a quick trip down Polson Street in Castlecliff may surprise you: at least four out of five chimneys are built on an exterior wall.

As you can see from the photos, our Shacklock is built along an interior wall next to French doors that lead from our kitchen/dining to the lounge. Additionally, this location allows the sun to strike it three times during each winter day: morning, mid-day and afternoon.

Like the Tasman Sea, the Shacklock’s thermal mass is a temperature moderator powered by sunlight energy. But, in the event of a day or two without sunshine, we can always load it with wood, which is really just sunlight one step removed.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, passive solar, sun angles

Passive Solar: Let the Sun Shine in

May 16, 2014 Estwing 1 Comment

Although I was unaware of it at the time, my first birthday coincided with a significant number one hit by The 5^th Dimension on the U.S. Billboard Pop Singles Chart. Here is a music trivia quiz:

• The song is a medley of two songs.

• It was the first medley to top the American charts.

• It remained at number one for six weeks in April and May, 1969.

• It reached number one in Canada and number three in Australia.

• It was replaced at number one in the U.S. by “Get Back” by The Beatles.

• It featured prominently in the musical, “Hair.”

Whanganui’s aging hippies will easily recognize this song as “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.”

One of my earliest childhood memories was going to a high school production of Hair and absolutely loving it. Afterward, my brother and I dug out my parents’ LP and listened to it over and over again. What’s odd about that neither of us had musical talent or any inclination to be on stage.

To this day, we both remain avid music listeners while retaining complete lack of talent. I have given karaoke a go exactly twice: both in the last two years, and both accompanying my wife who has an amazing singing voice.

So what is my point in all of this? Two points: 1) you do not have to be proficient at something to appreciate it deeply; 2) let the sunshine in.

Whether or not this is the Age of Aquarius, I reckon it certainly is the age of designing homes to take advantage of free and abundant sunlight energy. One need not be proficient in eco-design to appreciate this. One need simply pay a power bill and wish it were lower.

The basics of passive solar home design date back hundreds or even thousands of years in some cultures, but the modern era of passive solar dates to around the time when The 5^th Dimension was at the peak of their popularity.

As I described last week, passive solar design consists of solar gain, thermal mass and insulation. During our renovation we increased solar gain by adding glazing (windows and French doors) to the northern sides of our villa. At the same time we removed glazing from the southern sides.

North corner before.

North corner during.

North corner after.

If we think of a home as a bank account for energy: in winter, the north facing windows make deposits during the day and withdrawals at night, while the south facing windows make withdrawals day and night (unless we happen to get an unseasonably warm day).

In the end, we had roughly the same amount of total glazing in our home but it was more appropriately placed to take advantage of solar gain and minimize heat loss.

Southern window before.

Southern window during.

Southern corner after, awaiting paint.

Our renovated villa has performed admirably of late. Up until this week we have not had to use any heat source aside from the sun. Operating only on solar energy, our indoor temperature remained over 17 degrees right up until the early morning of Mother’s Day.

From the 28th of April through the 3rd of May when the outdoor high each day was 15 or 16 degrees, our indoor temperature never dropped below 18. Put another way, over these six days our indoor low temperature remained at least two degrees over the outdoor high. This is the power of free and abundant sunlight energy.

If you happen to be a lover of music or free energy but do not consider yourself proficient in the latter, please join me at one of the free upcoming events made possible by our partners and supporters: Tree Life NZ, Sustainable Engineering, Black Pine Architects, Richard Collins – therivermouth.co.nz, Sustainable Wanganui Trust, Progressive Castlecliff, and the Josephite Retreat Centre.

Sidebar: Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training)

Today, 11 am – 1 pm: Drop in eco-design advice. River Traders Market, Taupo Quay

Tomorrow, 3 – 4 pm: DIY Double-Glazing Examples.

design principles, Eco Thrifty Renovation, energy efficiency, passive solar

R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Materials and Energy

May 8, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

In 1982, when I was 14 years old, Aretha Franklin moved into my neighbourhood. She had come back to Detroit to assist with the care of her ailing father who ultimately died two years later.

Like all things great and glorious, Franklin experienced a resurgence in popularity during the 1980’s following an amazing cameo appearance in The Blues Brothers (1980). She was inducted as the first female performer into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

What does any of this have to do with eco-design?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

From my perspective, good eco-design is about maintaining a high level of respect for energy and materials. The reason that good eco-design is so rare in New Zealand housing, I suspect, is that most homes were built at a time when energy, wood, steel, concrete and glass were inexpensive.

When things have a low monetary value placed on them, human beings tend to respect them less than when things hold high monetary value. This can partially explain the abundance of poorly designed dwellings across the country and throughout Whanganui.

Maintaining respect for energy and materials when they are universally cheap is difficult. We can think of some idealistic hippies and back-to-the-landers in the 1970s, but few of them were able to carry on through the cultural and consumer shifts during the 1980s and 1990s. They can be forgiven.

More recently, the costs of energy and building materials have been increasing faster than wage rises for over a decade, with a particular jump in petrol prices since 2008. By now it should be common knowledge that power has doubled in price over the last 10 years, and mathematicians may suggest it is likely to double again in another decade.

From a purely fiscal perspective, we might see more eco-design creeping into the home building and renovation industry in two ways: smaller homes that require fewer materials to build and less energy to operate; well-designed ‘passive’ homes where the building materials are arranged in such a way as to result in very low energy use dwellings.

Our renovation may be considered a passive solar retrofit because we took a big old cold villa and transformed it into a warm, dry home heated almost entirely by the sun. The term passive implies that our home simply sits there taking in solar energy like a parked car or sunbather.

Converting a bog standard villa to passive solar requires three basic elements: more glazing that faces the equator than the nearer pole; thermal mass (ie, heavy stuff) inside of the building envelope that absorbs warmth during the day and emits it at night; and, insulation that reduces the rate at which heat escapes the building envelope.

We add draught-proofing to these three design elements, but the bottom line is that plugging draughts is just plane common sense and one of the cheapest things anyone can do to keep the warmth in and the cold out.

Over the next four weeks I’ll write in detail about these passive solar design strategies and how we applied them during our renovation. ‘Cause that’s what R-E-S-P-E-C-T means to me.

Peace, Estwing

Eco Thrifty Renovation, insulation

Layering up for Warmth

May 1, 2014 Estwing Leave a comment

Two weeks ago this column was used to announce the second year of Project HEAT (Home Energy Awareness Training). Part of that column included data from evaluation forms filled out by Whanganui residents following free home energy audits. Of the feedback provided, the following statement stood out for me.

“It made me think about how to keep the heat in versus keep heating a cold home.”

One might call this a light bulb moment (compact fluorescent or LED, of course), because it appears that this client suddenly shifted their thinking about the thermal performance of their home. But this ‘new’ way of thinking may not be so unfamiliar to all of us. Let me give an example.

Like many local residents, Dani and I enjoy spending a winter Saturday afternoon at Cook’s Garden watching the Butcher’s Boys play. Like most Wanganui rugby supporters, as the temperature drops, the first thing we think of is adding a layer of clothing rather than getting something to eat.

I’m sorry if this is not a very exciting example, but here is my point. If we think about the human body as a home, we can consider clothing to be insulation, draught-proofing, and water resistance. In reference to the quote above, we naturally act to “keep the heat in” by adding layers rather than only adding more ‘fuel’, ie food.

But for some reason many of people think differently about their homes. Decades of cheap energy may have allowed most of us to grow complacent about simply pressing a button or turning a knob to warm up our homes instead of thinking about energy efficiency. Fair enough, but times have changed.

Power prices are up. Gas prices are up. Petrol prices are up. Even fire wood prices are up.

As our glorious Whanganui autumn tips toward winter, it may be a good time to think about ‘adding a layer’ to our homes. While ceiling insulation is a clear choice, it requires capitol investment that some may find difficult. On the other hand, Project HEAT offers many low-cost/high performance ideas for renters and owners alike. Many of these ideas focus on windows and doors, which can account for as much or more heat loss than ceilings.

Which brings me to feedback from a different client “Excellent explanations re: heat loss and cheap, effective solutions. How to fit a window blanket.”

Picking words from this quote, window blankets are a cheap and effective solution to heat loss.

The recipe for a window blanket is simple:

two battens cut to width of window;

old wool blanket or equivalent;

three or four screws.

Mix ingredients, add to single-paned windows, and keep on low heat until spring.

Like a homemade birthday cake, window blankets can also be decorated. Last winter I had the pleasure of working with amazing local artist Sue Cooke and art educator extraodinaire Andrea Gardner on a children’s holiday programme in coordination with The Paradise Project and funded by Horizons Regional Council.

As you can see from the photos, the children expressed their creativity using a window blanket for their bedroom as a ‘blank canvas.’ Ka pai!

Sidebar: DIY Window Blanket Workshop

Sunday, 4^th May, 3-5 pm.

Duncan Pavilion, Castlecliff Beach.

Please bring: straight wooden battens in the range of 2cm x 6cm or 4.5cm x 4.5 cm; wool blanket or non-cotton fabric.

Tools and screws provided free.

Eco Thrifty Renovation

Water Damage: Costly but Preventable

April 25, 2014 Estwing 1 Comment

Hindsight, as we all know, is 20/20, and the leaky homes crisis in New Zealand lends itself easily to such clear retrospective viewing. According to Wikipedia, “The repairs and replacement cost that could have been avoided were estimated in 2009 to be approximately $11.3 billion.”

From an eco-thrifty perspective, this is infuriating because it represents such a waste of money and resources, mostly attributable to bad design and “changed building controls from a prescriptive system to a more self-regulated regime.”

We all know what happened when world governments allowed banks to regulate themselves over the last several decades: they crashed the global economy. But instead of reigning in banks, the US and Europe have allowed them to get bigger and to reward their executives with ever larger bonuses.

Thankfully, the New Zealand government did not respond to leaky homes in the same way. Some say the NZ building code is now among the toughest in the world, and building inspectors are known to be thorough in their attention to detail.

During our renovation, our building inspector was thorough and helpful with advice and suggestions, as were other members of the Wanganui Building Control team with whom I spoke over the counter at the council building.

I have praised the building code on a number of occasions as quintessentially sustainable. After all, a sustainable home is one that won’t rot, won’t fall down in an earthquake, won’t burn down unnecessarily, and has a level of energy-efficiency.

Architects and builders have known for hundreds of years the importance of shedding water away from wooden structures, and it’s not just about roofs. “Flashing” is the term often used for sealing up all the bits around doors and windows as well as unusual junctures in complex roofs or around chimneys, flues, relief valves, etc. In these cases it is the attention to detail that is important because any seam in the building envelope is a possible entryway for water.

Good, thorough flashing costs time and money, but pays for itself in ‘cost avoidance’ in the future (ie, $11.3 billion and counting). It is almost always cheaper to do something properly in the first place than to pay to clean up the mess and make repairs later on. Water damage is expensive.

To draw a parallel from housing to our greater community, the stopbanks (aka levees) along the Whanganui act as “flashing” for our city because they are meant to transfer floodwaters safely out to sea. Recently WDC reinforced the 50-year stopbanks along Anzac Parade while Horizons engineers have reported that because of climate change a 50-year flood is now a 25-year flood, a 100-year flood is a 50-year flood, a 200-year flood is now a 100-year flood, etc.

I’m sorry if this is all starting to sound like “The artist formerly known as Prince” talk, but it appears that we’ve entered a “new normal” that includes more frequent and severe droughts and floods as well as persistently high fuel costs to deal to the consequences of both.

This combination of more frequent damage to our local economy and higher costs of response would appear to require different ways of thinking than what local government has provided us with in the past. In other words, we may need ‘new thinking’ to address the ‘new normal.’

A prudent observer might say time is of the essence. With a halving of flood intervals, it appears the clock is now ticking twice as fast.

Eco Thrifty Living

Category Archives: Eco Thrifty Renovation

Innovation Comes in All Sizes

Reducing Moisture in a Home

Momentum: Both Debt and Climate

Draughts or Drafts? Either Way, Reduce Them.

Insulation: Not Romantic, but Essential

It is Heavy, It’s Thermal Mass

Passive Solar: Let the Sun Shine in

R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Materials and Energy

Layering up for Warmth

Water Damage: Costly but Preventable

Wedding Renovation Baby Life