What is a Healthy Home?
Damien McGill
Engineering Happy Healthy Homes for People and Planet. Certified Passive House Consultant
There is a lot of talk about #Healthyhomes, but little chat defining what makes a house "healthy".
This leads to misunderstandings, ambuguities and in many cases warm washing by industry, politicians and people in positions of power.
The World Health Organisation
The World Health Organization (WHO) says: "Adequate housing must provide more than four walls and a roof. A number of conditions must be met before particular forms of shelter can be considered to constitute “adequate housing.” These elements are just as fundamental as the basic supply and availability of housing. For housing to be adequate, it must, at a minimum, meet the following criteria:"
Healthy Housing
One's health and well being can be affected by not complying with any of the above categories. However, when talking about a "healthy home", is more reasonable to consider Availability of services, Habitability and Accessibility as defined above, being the key drivers of health purely from a building occupation point of view.
The Problem
The problem is that people in power, like politicians, who talk about healthy housing, generally have no idea what they are talking about. They living is the same substandard housing as everybody else, so have no experience of living in a truly healthy home. Upgrading from a ’40’s bungalow to a modern code compliant building is definitely a step in the right direction, but may not fully meet the WHO’s criteria, in that the new home is still poorly ventilated, still expensive to heat properly (although less so than the bungalow), and often overheat in summer.
Education
Education is required, not just telling people, but showing them.
How do we persuade more professional people to touch and feel a truly healthy home? Would AirBNB work?
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How do we convey a message that explains what a healthy home really looks and feels like, while successfully overcoming urban myths and prejudices at the same time?
How do we get that message to lots of Kiwi's?
Passive House
#passivehouse is one proven way of achieving #healthyhomes. Passive House provides well insulated, well ventilated homes that need very little energy to heat, making them efficient and affordable to live in. The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP), the modelling software at the heart of passive house, checks for overheating, now and in a future warmer world.
Passive house is an international standard that works all over the world to provide healthy homes, whether the climate is hot or cold, wet or dry.
While Passive House is more expensive to build initially, the ongoing running costs are significantly lower than cheaper, less efficient houses. In that way passive houses meets all of the WHO objectives.
Passive house has been proven to provide healthy homes in #aotearoa New Zealand.
A map of all the certified passive houses across the motu can be found here https://sustainableengineering.co.nz/nz-au-certified-passive-house-projects-map/
Check it out, there may be one in your neighbourhood. It’s likely that the owner would be pretty proud to show you through.
A healthy house shouldn’t just be an aspiration of a few. A healthy home should be fully felt and understood as a right for all!
Director at Passive House Academy New Zealand - Kaiako Pūtaiao Hanganga. He pōkeke uenuku i tū ai.
1yThanks for considering the whole definition of adequate housing in the introduction! We cannot isolate habitability, although it is of course a big problem in Aotearoa, from all the other aspects that make housing adequate, and that's where policymakers need just as big a push to move us in the right direction as they do with habitability.
Building Control Officer - Processing | Building, Fire And Plumbing Compliance
1yAgain, are we 1st world country or not? That's what our leaders need to decide. Seems it's not up to voters. In all the 1st world countries I know, passive homes have the minimum standards for their building codes. I loved your comments that many of the leaders do not know the difference between a healthy home here in NZ. That shows that many of our leaders' heads were stuck in the sand all this time, never traveled, or needed to research healthy homes. Why? Because most of them grow up with money and have people around them to do all the chores and make sure their house is clean and aired all times. They never need to worry about heating and energy bills to pay. They never experience a cold and damp house feeling. They never need to worry about making essential choices every paycheck, food, bills, rent, or new shoes for their child. They never experience leaving an unhealthy home and breathing mold into their lungs. Yet they tell us they can fix this if you don't know or have never experienced something. Can you call yourself an expert to fix the matters? If I do that, it's called fraud, but politicians and the PM or Minister of Housing do. It's called OK.
“Net Carbon Zero By Nature” Grower | Rural Advocate | Wool Evangelist | Financial Capability Facilitator | Key Relationship Manager
1yWe mustn’t leave existing housing stock out of the potential healthy homes stock - not everyone can afford to buy or build new - NZ has some imcredible housing stock that can be made healthier. Ironically older homes were healthier when people wore wool, used fires, used wool carpet, aired their homes properly and dressed for the seasons. Its possible to retro fit older houses, retaining the good aspects and enhancing the lesser aspects.
A guy who loves property called HardestWorkingGinger 💥
1yImagine if #passivehouse was the new standard…