Lisa French, Matthias Heinrich, Roman Jaques, Chris Kane, Andrew Pollard.
This report summarises the learning from the first full year of occupancy of the Waitakere NOW Home.
The Waitakere NOW Home in its first year of occupation had an energy consumption (electricity) of 7400 kWh. Based on the HEEP data the NOW Home’s total energy consumption could be said to perform well against new houses in the Auckland region (Group 4) as well as against four person households with pre-school age children (Group 3) where the average savings are approximately 33%. The Waitakere NOW Home used 100 L of water person per day from the street water main, 44% less than the 180 L/p/d in Beacon’s High Standard of Sustainability. The rainwater tank provided an additional 88 L/p/d or 47% of the total water needs.
There was an overwhelming vote of confidence from the Waitakere NOW Home occupants: the way the NOW Home was performing in the both comfort and utility. The tenants consistently gave a perfect rating of ‘10’ (i.e. Extremely Different) in terms of the experience for living in the NOW Home, compared to houses lived in previously.
The summer temperatures in the Waitakere NOW Home are warm (above comfort range). The temperature in the family room spends nearly 60% of the time above 25°C over summer. Despite not having any regular heating, the winter temperatures in the Waitakere NOW Home are good. The mean winter evening temperature in the living room was 19.4°C. The mean summer RH in the living room was approximately 55% and 60% in the main bedroom.