Passive House Builders in Coffs Harbour

We build healthier, high-performance living environments that thrive in Coffs’ muggy climate.

Passive Home Design

Passive House sets the benchmark for quality and energy-efficient building practices, prioritising comfort, health, and sustainability. Compared to traditional homes, buildings adhering to Passive House standards can achieve up to a 90% reduction in heating and cooling demands.

Joe Builds creates unique Passive House designs tailored specifically to each site's individual requirements, guided by essential Passive House principles:

  • Airtight Construction: Ensuring airtightness with fewer than 0.60 air changes per hour (ACH), preventing drafts and enhancing indoor comfort.

  • Mechanical Ventilation: Continuously replaces stale indoor air with fresh, filtered outdoor air, maintaining superior indoor air quality.

  • Efficient Insulation: Strategically chosen insulation effectively minimizes heat transfer, ensuring consistent indoor temperatures throughout the year.

  • Thermal Bridge-Free Design: Preventing heat transfer through structural elements like concrete and metal, either through thoughtful design or specialised insulation, to ensure consistent thermal performance.

  • Advanced Windows and Doors: High-quality window and door systems that significantly minimise heat and air loss.

We’re redefining comfort and sustainability in Coffs homes.

Passive House and high-performance homes share many common objectives, yet they each have distinctive differences worth considering.

Constructing to Passive House standards transcends energy savings, sustainability, or financial efficiencies alone.

"It also strongly supports occupant health—often a primary concern for families building their forever homes. Achieving both health benefits and cost efficiency makes Passive House a compelling choice."

Australia's National Construction Code (NCC), revised every three years, dictates mandatory requirements for building health, safety, sustainability, and accessibility. Managed by the Australian Building Codes Board, the next NCC revision will include significant enhancements aimed specifically at residential buildings:

  • Condensation Management

  • Improved Structural Performance Solutions

  • Apartment Energy Efficiency: Implementing centralized hot water systems

  • Residential Energy Efficiency: Increased focus on thermal breaks

  • Facilitation of Home Electrification and EV Charging Infrastructure

Health-conscious families (especially with asthma or mould sensitivity)

Sustainability-minded professionals

Retirees wanting energy-efficient comfort

Young families building or renovating

Homeowners with old damp homes

Joe Builds' Approach to High-Performance Homes

Joe Builds employs strategies designed to manage indoor temperatures effectively throughout the year, enhancing both heating and cooling performance.

Our methods aim to be seamless, ensuring your home remains exceptionally quiet. Advanced ventilation systems operate effortlessly without requiring constant user adjustments. Incorporating a minimum standard of double-glazed windows significantly enhances temperature control and noise insulation, creating an environment of tranquility and comfort regardless of external conditions,” explains Joe.

A high-performance home from Joe Builds carefully balances energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, architectural excellence, and creativity, delivering outstanding results without compromising any aspect.

We consistently incorporate sustainable practices into our projects, such as carefully evaluating the environmental impact throughout a product's lifecycle, using reduced and low-carbon concrete, minimising structural steel, integrating solar energy solutions and backup storage, and implementing water-saving systems—all as standard practice at Joe Builds.

FAQs

What is a Passive House?

A Certified Passive House is a home that is designed and built with the 5 Passive House Principles of Thermal Bridge Free Construction, Quality Windows and Doors, Thermal Insulation, Air Tightness and Heat Recovery Ventilation..

It is a house that requires very little energy to maintain a year round constant, pleasant temperature. With it’s mechanical air ventilation system it also provides fresh, filtered air 24/7 making it an exceptionally good for our well being.

How is a Passive House certified?

Part of the Passive House Certification process requires the design to be put through a modelling software system known as the (PHPP) Passive House Planning Package, which helps to define a home’s design in order to meet the criteria of a passive house.

During the process of the build, all 5 principles are adhered to. At the completion of the build a blower door test is done to ensure the minimum standards of air tightness and air exchanges are achieved.

The final stages of certification is providing full documentation of the entire building process and blower door tests with the application for official status to be granted.

Why would I choose the Passive House system?

The goals at the heart of the two different systems have the same direction in mind, however the certainty of achieving the desired outcomes is a much more calculated and documented approach with the Passive House Certification method of accountability.