Solar – house experiment

Press, 30 December 1976, Page 3

Solar - house experiment

PA Wellington Four experimental houses to test new framing and solar-heating systems will be built in Porirua next year. Two contracts for the trial houses were let by the Housing Corporation earlier this month. The houses are expected to be ready for occupation in mid-July. The houses, to be built at Almora View, are being built in conjunction with the D.5.1.R., the Building Research Association, and the Forest Research Institute. Each house will have a different type of solar water

heating panel installed on the roof, and the D.S.I.R. in Wellington will monitor them for the first 12 to 15 months they are used. The aim is to discover the most economical system of solar heating by testing systems in similar houses.

Tile second half of the experiment is to test new framing systems and interior linings designed and produced according to a new draft code. If these and other experiments are successful, the changes may be included in a revised standard specification code next year.

The four houses will have: experimental variations in! stud spacing. The usual | spacing in corporation-built j homes is 100 mm by 50mm j studs, at 450 mm centres,! with three rows of dwangs. The four experimental houses will be built with; either 100 x 40 or 100 x 50 ‘ studs at 400 mm or 600 mm centres, with or without' dwangs, on load-bearing walls. On non-load-bearing f walls there will be 75 xj 50mm studs with either no! dwangs, or with dwangs! staggered alternately 150mm] iabove or below mid-height- i