Home Performance in New Zealand with Adam Cohen

[@tweake7175]

the interesting thing happening in the home front in NZ is the housing standards for rentals. you have to, where possible, have a certain level of insulation and heating. there is a fine for those who do not comply and the fine is paid to the tenants. also for many years now there has been a very good push on peoples health due to housing. mold being the big issue. the effect here is to drive peoples expectations up which in the long term puts pressure on building industry to build better housing. one of the big social problems is that many people think that houses should be cold in winter and they taught very well not to use power. NZ energy cost is double that of USA. its such a high cost people simply do not use it (instead of building more efficient homes) and their health suffers because of it. the legacy of that is people think spending even a few $$ on heating is extravagant. that in turn has a massive impact on the public health system which is massively in the red. so their is a very good, but slow, push towards healthy homes. however the building industry fought against air leakage standards, so there is no air leakage requirement here, so very few people around that do blower door testing. hence most people have no concept of air flows in houses, so its rarely asked for and when it is builders generally ignore it. that of course all ties into the cost of building. so its not just cost of building but also the mind set of the public.

[@HomePerformance]

Of course, as everywhere. Thanks for going deep.

[@dustinabc]

when he gets political he's comparing the worst of the usa to the best of NZ. I've spent years traveling the world, including 3 months in NZ, and I've found that people are pretty much the same everywhere when you get down to the individuals., there's good and bad, love and hate, locals and migrants, crime and peace everywhere. People just want to be comfortable and happy. It's when you get to the governmental level that things start to really vary from place to place. Some places respect people's freedom to pursue comfort and happiness, while others really try to control what individuals can and can't do. What's the difference for a person if they are a slave to a single master, or if they are a slave to a bureaucracy? If you aren't free to live your life as you choose, that's what matters at the end of the day. you can't live the golden rule if you're not in line with the #NonAggressionPrinciple.

[@HomePerformance]

Well said

[@lee-johnson]

Man, you had to cut this vid up.

[@dustinabc]

Good ideas don't require force. #voluntaryism

[@dustincole2625]

Everyone is concerned about politics, I'm over here wondering why nobody else is curious what that plastic flex is doing? I suspect it is a self contained room air conditioner that exhausts outside which is a TERRIBLE IDEA. That building is obviously not Passivhaus

[@DannyZRC]

oh yay politics