Is 6 Homestar social housing really being met? Investigators suggest that the Fair Trade Law could be violated

The introduction of 6 Homestar buildings in social housing has been welcomed as a step towards more sustainable and healthy housing.

But new research from the University of Auckland questions the accuracy of the eco-certified rating tool and suggests that the performance claims could be in violation of the Fair Trade Act.

PhD graduate Rochelle Ade, along with Dr. Michael Rehm from the Property Department at the School of Business, tested some of the beneficial claims of Homestar, the national building rating tool established by the New Zealand Green Building Council ( NZGBC).

Using a case study of 30 Auckland social houses, including 6 older, newly built, code-compliant Homestar homes, Ade and Rehm found that all homes spent most of the winter colder than the healthy temperature of the city. World Health Organization of 18 ° C, with relative humidity outside the healthy range of 40-60 percent, more than 80 percent of the time.

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The 13 Newly Constructed Case Study Homes 6 rated by Homestar still spent 56 percent of the time during the winter below 18 degrees C. In contrast, the seven newly constructed case study homes that are code compliant they spent 64 percent of the winter below this threshold. . Although the certified case study houses fared better, Ade says the difference was statistically insignificant.

Their research, though limited to 30 Auckland households, also found that 6 Homestar-rated case study households exceeded the WHO healthy temperature threshold (24 degrees C) 75 percent of the time during the summer. In other words, all 6 Homestar homes studied were chronically overheating. The uncertified new homes spent 58 percent of the time overheating, while the nine oldest older homes fared significantly better at spending only 43 percent of their summer above the WHO healthy temperature threshold.

“The NZGBC promotes Homestar as a solution for cold and humid New Zealand homes,” says Ade. “If the actual performance of Homestar homes differs from what is claimed, this could be a violation of the Fair Trade Act and industry and consumers should know.”

Kiwi construction scientists Oculus say the research findings showing problems with a national sustainability rating tool for new construction is further evidence of many broader underlying problems in the Kiwi construction industry caused by the lack of visible scientific evidence.

They say the results of the investigation “were not unexpected” and also believe that the rating tool may be in violation of the Fair Trade Law.

Oculus Co-Director Shawn McIsaac says Homestar is a checklist that can be uploaded to achieve a higher rating by carrying out only the most superficial aspects of sustainability, rather than addressing the main problems in the home of New Zealand, like heating and ventilation, with the requirements for those crucial aspects are essentially the same as the inadequate stipulations of the base building code anyway.

“Housing design, particularly for the most vulnerable people who will live in social housing, should not be” only marginally better than the worst building allowed by law, “he says.

GBCNZ ‘WELCOMES THE INVESTIGATION’

The GBCNZ says it is proud of its Homestar tool and the houses it has helped create.

CEO Andrew Eagles says it was developed together with the industry “to help build on top of our unfortunate Building Code, and is continually updated to ensure it aligns with best practices.”

And part of GBCNZ’s collaborative approach in creating and tuning the tool is to take independent research into account.

“Research is a useful input in our continuous improvement process along with other feedback from the industry. We are in the process of determining what insights, if any, we can draw from the latest research from Rochelle Ade and Dr. Michael Rehm. “

Eagles said Stuff the study does not appear to specify what, if any, heating (or ventilation) was used in the households surveyed.

“We are calling for more independent research in this area and are currently supporting research on Homestar homes by Massey University, and we are in the process of facilitating other high-performance home monitoring projects and how they work.”

Eagles says the current Homestar tool is in its fourth version. “We have had a lot of interest and participation from the industry over the last year as we work on creating the new version five. When creating rating tools, we rely on input from the industry, the expertise of our staff, research and international best practices.

“We know that a third of the houses in New Zealand are damp and moldy. There is an inexcusably high rate of respiratory illness. It prompts us to ensure that such unfortunate statistics are not a reality for generations to come. “

WAKE UP CALL FOR BANKS

Ade and Rehm say that some banks have partnered with the NZGBC and are requiring 6 Homestar certifications as a minimum requirement to access their healthy home loan packages.

“International standards with a strong evidence base (such as Passive House) are not eligible for healthy home loan packages, despite international academic research confirming that the Passive House standard offers warmer, drier and healthier homes that cost less. “

Ade says: “Developers should not be required to chase points in a rating tool; they should be encouraged to design and build to a standard that is independently verified to provide healthy homes. “