It’s a movement – a shared goal toward a higher standard of housing. Helping kiwis live in better, healthier, more energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly homes.

On paper, it’s a not-for-profit organisation comprising designers, builders, engineers, suppliers, and homeowners who want to create ongoing transformative change for the building industry.

Practically, it offers an open-source network that shares intellectual property, designs, and concepts, and connects experts in the field with homeowners. Plus, it organises regular tours of high-performance homes to provide tangible experiences and opportunities for interested parties.

It does not dictate how you design and build, instead providing guidance on how to achieve higher performing healthy homes, energy efficiency, and assist sustainability. There are different target levels – base, better, and best. This allows homeowners to make more informed decisions based on what they are trying to achieve.

Alignment of Superhome and Passive House Principles

The design and building principles behind the passive house (sometimes referred to as passive house principles) are key to creating a healthy, energy-efficient home. These include air tightness, superior insulation, mechanical heat recovery ventilation, thermal bridge management, and high-performance windows. Together these components drive a significantly lower energy demand alongside the provision of a healthy comfortable indoor living environment. These same principles are important for the Superhome Movement.

A passive House, from a purist point of view, is a Certified Passive House – This is an international standard. It is modelled, verified, and certified to perform at a precise level and various features of the design and materials must be approved. It is a stringent and detailed process, but it does produce the ultimate in high performance. The core components are the five principles mentioned above but it’s the verification and the strict performance requirements that achieve the required certification.

Like Chatterton Homes, the Superhome Movement encourages the best performing home for your budget and other personal constraints.  For some this may be a Certified Passive House, for others it may be more limited.  The two factions are not mutually exclusive.

The Superhome Movement emboldens further options and flexibility, allowing more New Zealanders into healthier, higher performing, and more sustainable homes. This is something we feel very strongly about and having a network of experts supporting this conviction provides confidence and increases awareness of the options available.

Superhome does encourage the energy modelling of all homes at the design stage to predict performance, provide confidence and allow qualified decision-making.  This is an inexpensive exercise with compelling benefits. Check out our Energy Modelled High Performing Home Option.