Westmere house - a new urban sustainable home by ebode

listed by ebode

Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

is using NZ Draft-wood for its Westmere urban eco house project. Draft-wood is a timber that has been harvested with the up most care to minimise impact on the environment. all trees are selected and carefully felled to minimise damage and extracted using natural draft horse power.

Draft horses have the ability to maneuver in the stand to allow single tree selection and they also have very little ground disturbance not to mention no fossil fuels, smoke or noise (can still here the tui).

NZ Draft-wood are currently logging 80 year old wilding western red cedar and lawson cypress (which are trees which have spread wild from seed in our native bush) from D.O.C land allowing room for the native species.

The slow growing and the age of the trees makes for beautiful timber. Western red cedar and lawson cypress require no treatment allowing for a chemical free ecologically sound building product perfect for our ebode homes.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Interesting mix of technologies, eco friendly horses and smelly polluting trucks and machinery. Hand drawn saws to cut the timber also ??

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

And those ali windows with the highest embodied energy of all possible window materials. grrrr

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

True...the world is an interesting mix of technologies and I agree the building industry is one of the planets biggest polluters. The issues around using horses is more to do with the low impact nature of the logging on the remaining bush than the fossil fuel burning issue.

It would be nice to have all our contractors turning up to site on a horse now wouldn't it. Oh well...Small steps.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

That's why ebode use a timber window joinery system as our standard, unless pushed by a client to use aluminium....our role is to question and guide during specification... It's a balancing act ... I'll leave the debate about high embodied energy and materials for another forum, but it's a valid point.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Aluminium is compressed electricity, if that electricity is renewable is it a problem?
JK

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Rather than look at the amount of embodied energy in a material shouldn't we be looking at how clean the energy is? Aluminium produced at Tiwai point comes from (relatively) clean hydro at Manapouri whereas the majority of timber used for windows is north American cedar shipped half way around the world...

It becomes an endless debate.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Besides the embodied energy, the energy wasted in the lifetime of an aluminium window is significant.
The large percentage of aluminium used in NZ housing is part of the problem why our houses are on the lowest end of energy efficiency in the developed world.
While it makes sense to use it as an outer cover for timber windows, whole aluminium windows have rapidly declined in residential markets world wide due to it's lack of insulation ability.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Thanks for making that point Dean...yes it is one of the things we take into account here at ebode when specifying metals (especially aluminium)

We also have a very strong focus on New Zealand made product and avoid imported timbers.

Our standard Joinery system uses German style tilt and turn windows and doors. They are essentially a full timber joinery system made in New Zealand from locally grown timbers like macrocarpa and Eucalyptus Saligna and have an aluminium weather face on the outer side for durability.

...the best of all worlds...long life, top thermal performance and beauty, and really no more expensive than some of the "fake" composite timber aluminium systems on offer in the NZ market at present.

The only imported components are the hinges handles and locking mechanisms which come from Germany.

The main obstacle here in NZ around Euro style joinery seems to be the reluctance of some to engage with the inward opening windows. That said, many of our ebode clients are European, English or North American and appreciate its superior performance so have no problem at all with this kind of window system.

Niel de Jong CEO

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Thanks for making that point Dean...yes it is one of the things we take into account here at ebode when specifying metals (especially aluminium)

We also have a very strong focus on New Zealand made product and avoid imported timbers.

Our standard Joinery system uses German style tilt and turn windows and doors. They are essentially a full timber joinery system made in New Zealand from locally grown timbers like macrocarpa and Eucalyptus Saligna and have an aluminium weather face on the outer side for durability.

...the best of all worlds...long life, top thermal performance and beauty, and really no more expensive than some of the "fake" composite timber aluminium systems on offer in the NZ market at present.

The only imported components are the hinges handles and locking mechanisms which come from Germany.

The main obstacle here in NZ around Euro style joinery seems to be the reluctance of some to engage with the inward opening windows. That said, many of our ebode clients are European, English or North American and appreciate its superior performance so have no problem at all with this kind of window system.

Niel de Jong CEO ebode

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Made in New Zealand is not the first criteria for me.
First criteria is quality, performance and value for money. Sadly too often NZ companies fall terribly short of those criterias.
All those who have problems with imported goods should remember that none of us would be in business here if there wouldn't be people in Europe and elsewere buying our Kiwi fruit, meat, apples, dairy products, onions, cowsheds ..........which travelled half around the world.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

>>> The main obstacle here in NZ around Euro style joinery seems to be the reluctance of some to engage with the inward opening windows. That said, many of our ebode clients are European, English or North American and appreciate its superior performance so have no problem at all with this kind of window system.

Hi Niel,

just to expand on this. Inward opening windows are not popular in Britain either, they are known there as "continental" style rather than "euro" style.
I'm not sure about North America.
Most British homes use curtains/drapes rather than shutters or external blinds popular in Europe. Also wall thicknesses Europe (and in Britain) tend to be much thicker than the 90mm used in NZ so inward opening don't intrude so much into the room. The useful thing about inward opening is that it makes for easy cleaning :)

Pete

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Looking at allk aspects of inward or outward opening you will find that inward opening windows have more pluses compared to outward.
Better hardware is available for inward
Better security
Better cleaning
Better exit in emergency
Better opening and ventilation (outward opening windows can't be fully opened in many cases)
Better handling

90mm wall thickness is rather poor and out of date to achive thermal efficiency and comfort.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Q. Its just been raining and you open your inward opening windows for some natural ventilation
1. do you end up with a wet floor as a result of wet
exterior? or
2. do you have to carry a towel around and mop up
the puddles? or
3. do you have all fixed glazing and just run a HVAC
system or similar?

The above questions might sound silly I know, but just thinking of the practical side, appreciate the 'euro style' windows though.
Mike

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

When it is raining you tilt the window and then it bis similar like an awning window.
BUT THERE IS ON BIG DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!
If it doesn't rain or hot you can ventilate by opening the window properly and not just partly.
You can look outside without the glass in your face.
Towels are only required for windows designed and made by NZ companies for "NZ CONDITIONS" sorry Fiji conditions ;-))))))))))

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

I agree, the euro or continental Windows are not common or usual in the UK but our English clients are at least familiar with them and see them as a step up in quality and functionality.

We always use 140 wide timber framing to alow for the joinery and improved insulation values. Our thermal mass walls are 250 thick, and no I have never had to use a towel to mop up after rain....with the Windows (and doors for that matter) tilted in in ventilation mode the rain doesn't seem to get in but the house is still 100% secure.

I will post up some photos on our Facebook page of the joinery in the westmere house project when we fit the joinery.

Niel de Jong CEO ebode

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Niel,
do I have to open a Facebook account to follow this project, or will you be replicating the postings on your ebode web site?
regards, Russell.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Hi Russell,

Thanks for showing an interest in what we are doing. To answer you question, you don't need to have a facebook account to follow the project on facebook. We have it set up so non facebook users can view our facebook pages too.

just follow the link below or click on our link from our ebode website front page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ebode/98244388735?ref=nf

If you do sing up to facebook though and join our ebode page as a fan you then have the option to make comments and have the updates appear on your FB page automatically.

We probably won't put images etc up on our main ebode site till the house is finished.

Niel CEO ebode

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

I went past this house today when I was in town. Looks very interesting. There were about 8 or 9 people all working on it and things seem to be happening very quickly. Can't wait to see it finished.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Good to see more variety in design. I noted the aspect of the house seems to be north facing for solar thermal gain, yet the roof (presumably with the PV) is sloping back ... to the south.. how is that optimised?

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Hi Phil, you are correct in the assumption that the house is designed for maximum passive solar gain.

The siting of this particular house however is not as straight forward as might first be assumed from the photos. For various reasons (not the least that it is a narrow Urbain site with strict hight in relation to boundary constraints) the house is in fact facing North East, which accounts for the unusual angle of the front roof plane.

The striking angle it produces are a direct result of our sun studies and the house not facing true North still having to have sufficient shading on the northern corner of the house in the heat of the day.

This house is fitted with a roof integrated amorphous solar array which is less sensitive to direction and is in fact sloping to the west at an 8 degree pitch. The loss of efficiency from this type of array is minimal in this situation. The solar hot water collectors are positioned on a frame which faces to the North.

As you can probably appreciate , passive and active solar require two differing approaches to roof design and coupled with the strict boundary controls we feel we have come to a happy design solution with little compromise.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

This is what we call modern horse logging we do use chainsaws as we still need to be productive.However our aim is to minimize impact and forest stewardship is primary concern second only to safety of men and horses.Horse logging is very labour intensive for all involved every log stacked, track cut or branch moved is by man or horse so energy conservation is critical nothing is cut or moved unnecessarily.Conventional logging equipment is generaly imported as is the fuel. These horses were sourced from a farm down the road so was there fuel supporting local economy.These are just a few benefits of horse powered log extaction all in all the fuel burned in our chainsaws is more than compensated for i believe. THE ABILITY TO EXTRACT LOGS AND STILL HEAR THE BIRDS IS A BEAUTIFUL THING.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

It must be great to see the fruits of your labours transformed into this beautiful eco house by ebode

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

NZ DRAFTWOOD is a vision of Ike Pearce of ijp timbers of Raetihi and my self.We came up with the idea some years ago while i was working for a helilogging company.I was contacted to do the felling and ground prep for Ike who was extracting and saw milling wilding exotic trees out of D.O.C land in National park.Ike and i soon realized we shared the same vision of forest stewardship and became good friends.The trees Ike was extracting was mainly western red cedar and Lawson cypress and the fact that it had been grown at 730 mtrs above sea level for 85 years made for exceptional timber and as both species require no chemical treatment a wonderful eco building product.Ike had been extracting with conventional methods originally but soon had environmental concerns which led to the use of helicopters.Helicopters are a great logging tool with no ground impact what so ever but are very expensive and to achieve true sustainability the process needs to financially sustain itself also.Anyway one day while sitting on a cedar stump enjoying a coffee we discussed alternatives and came up with the idea of possibly using clydesdale's and 4 moths later i found myself the owner of 3 of these amazing animals and some harness and with some hard work and patience and went about introducing the horses to forestry work.With the support of Ike and other good friends equipment was built from internet photos and horses were trained and Draftworks and NZ DRAFTWOOD was created.This has been a journey that has changed my life for ever and to see great company's such as ebode and te huia log homes using our wood is mind blowing to say the least. Anyway this is the story behind the timber in the westmere eco project each board help to save a piece of native forest and a hell of allot of fun was had producing it.

Re: Westmere house - Harvesting the timber for the Urban Eco House project 

Thats all great horselogger but the problem in this country is that pretty much all plantations are Pinus Radiata Rubbish.
In Europe one generation plants the trees for the next or some generation after and you get really good timber there.
But here they know it all better (seems to be desease here) than overseas as usual and harvest the trees after 25 years.
The result is non sustainable rubbish wood which is treated and converted into a toxic material in order to last for a while at least.