Eco-friendly High Performance Home Project

Matt Savage and his wife, Sarah, spent about four years researching and designing their new eco-friendly home and eight to nine months building it. The main reason he wanted to tackle this project was because of a desire to lower his effect on the environment.

 “We’d like to show how things can be done better,” he said. “It would be one thing to build a house for ourselves but an open home enables us to make an even bigger impact.” Sarah’s experience included designing a house for her parents when they relocated to Timaru after their home was destroyed during the Christchurch earthquake. “That house incorporated a basic level of environmental design,” Savage said. “For our own house we went a bit crazy.”

The benefits of the new home include reducing electricity and heating use. “The health of us and our children was another major factor.” Culture, climate, and the age of homes in South Canterbury meant they were often damp and susceptible to mould, contributing to a high rate of asthma.

The couple thought eco-friendly homes should be the standard. “I think it should be in the building code.” Savage said the expense of building an eco-home is only five to 10 per cent more than the average build, and made up for the slight increase in the long-term. “Anyone who is in the market of building a house can do it,” he said.

The couple gave the eco-friendly home project to local builders; Lone Pine Building. “We wanted to show that a regional, provincial builder could do this,” he said. And they did.
 

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