Beacon

As New Zealand has far more existing houses than we are building new, we are focused on identifying and testing the best ways to make an existing house perform well.  This is often called retrofitting as, rather than making changes to make a house look better, the changes aim to improve a home’s performance.

A sustainable home will:

• be warmer, drier, healthier and kinder to the environment
• use fewer resources: less electricity, gas and water
• last well into the future and be flexible for changing households
• cost the same as a similar house to buy, but cost a whole lot less to run
• in time, as buyers realise the benefits of sustainable homes, have greater resale value

The HomeSmart Renovation project aims to lift a home’s performance to meet our HSS High Standard of Sustainability®. We’ve defined a sustainable renovation as one where the performance of the home meets these benchmarks.

The table below outlines the key measures and benchmarks to achieve our HSS High Standard of Sustainability®.

The three climate zones relate to New Zealand as follows: Zone 1 covers Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula; Zone 2 includes the rest of the North Island, excluding the Central Plateau; Zone 3 covers the Central Plateau of the North Island and the whole of the South Island.

Related Documents

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  20-Sep-2008 (Conference paper PR109/6)

  A High Standard of Sustainability for New Zealand Homes (PDF 275KB)

  Megan Howell

  SB08 World Sustainable Building Conference

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  29-May-2007 (Presentation PRES/1)

  What is a High Standard of Sustainability for New Zealand Homes? (PDF 143KB)

  Lois Easton

  Sustainable Living: Beacon Research Symposia 2007

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  29-May-2007 (Presentation PRES/7)

  Retrofitting Homes to Achieve a High Standard of Sustainability

  Vicki Cowan

  Reports on the Papakowhai Renovation project.  Sustainable Living: Beacon Research Symposia 2007