Golden Bay Hideaway

Proven Design

Ensuring that Little Greenie matches our high standards has always been important. We built sensors into the house right from the start so we could know we were getting results we planned for.

This is without using any internal heating, just passive solar. Each of the spikes represents a peak daytime temperature and you'll notice the indoor room temperature is comparitively stable and only dips below 20°C once - when it's approaching a chilly 5°C outside!

Getting the Facts

An independent report commissioned by The Hikurangi Foundation and EECA covered:

Excerpt from the report summary:

The Little Greenie house provides the following key benefits compared to an equivalent size and design of house built to current building code standards.

• A 9 star HERS rating as compared to a 4.5 HERS rating for a code compliant house.
• Little Greenie delivers a comfortable indoor environment that consistently meets World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended indoor temperatures year round with minimal reticulated energy input.
• Only marginal additional costs to build (at $2,136/m2 compared to $1,766/m2 for the code level equivalent), which provide a return on investment in less than 21 years and have the potential to add to the capital value of the house.
• An estimated return on investment in excess of $77,000 over a 50 year period when lower maintenance costs are also taken into account
• Little Greenie provides a practical and achievable method of building to a higher level of performance through well crafted passive solar design techniques and high levels of insulation that deliver a unique opportunity to educate and inspire the residential construction sector in New Zealand.

The report concludes with an analysis of the lessons learned, discussions for future potentials and a summary of recommendations for further work.

• Little Greenie - Getting the Facts - Summary
• Read the full report: Little Greenie - Getting the Facts