Jonathen Hindry
I help builders, architects and homeowners create healthier, quieter and more energy-efficient homes through measured building performance.
I’m Jonathen — most people call me Jono — founder of HiPer Haus. I help builders, architects and homeowners create healthier, quieter and more energy-efficient homes through measured building performance.
That means blower door testing, MVHR design and heat pump hot water — built on a trade background that started 25+ years ago as a plumber, not a marketing brief. The advice on this site comes from what I’ve measured and installed on real South Australian homes.
Where it started
The honest explanation for why HiPer Haus exists isn’t a business plan — it’s a single house. As an apprentice plumber in New Zealand, I worked on a home that was well ahead of its time: built for airtightness, with a dedicated fresh air system, heat pump hot water, and — unusual for the era — real thought given to reducing RF (radiofrequency) exposure from the home’s wiring and electrical layout.
It was the first time I’d seen a home treated as one connected system for health and comfort, rather than a stack of trades each doing their own thing and hoping it added up. That job stuck with me. Everything since — the plumbing, the heat pumps, the MVHR design, the blower door testing, becoming a Certified Passive House Tradesperson — has been chasing the same idea: a genuinely healthy home is measured and designed, not assumed.
Why five trades, one system
It’s not that I’ve collected a lot of qualifications — it’s that each one only makes sense in light of the others. A house is one connected system, and most trades only ever see their own piece of it.
25+ years as a plumber
Every wet area, hot water pipe and service chase is a possible air leak or moisture problem. Decades on the tools as a plumber means I see these details before they're built — not after a blower door test finds them.
Heat pump specialist
Hot water is usually the second-biggest energy load in a home. A heat pump system only delivers on its efficiency promise when it's sized, installed and controlled properly — the same trade discipline plumbing demands.
MVHR designer & installer
Ventilation and airtightness are two sides of the same problem. Designing and installing MVHR systems means understanding exactly how much fresh air a sealed-up home actually needs.
Blower door tester
You can't manage what you don't measure. Blower door testing turns "this house feels draughty" into an actual, documented number.
Certified Passive House Tradesperson
Passive House ties all of it together — airtightness, ventilation and thermal performance — into one internationally recognised standard, and certification means being tested on the building physics behind it, not just trade skills.
Most trades know one piece of this well. Understanding how all five connect — where a plumbing penetration becomes an airtightness problem, where an airtightness result changes what ventilation a home needs — is what makes the difference between a home that looks right on paper and one that actually performs.
The numbers so far
6
Years HiPer Haus has been operating
70+
MVHR systems designed & commissioned
Multiple
Blower door tests carried out
7
Passive House projects completed
Many
High-Performance home projects completed
Figures as of 2026 — updated as the HiPer Haus portfolio grows.
How I work
“I prefer measuring buildings rather than guessing.”
Blower door testing, commissioning data and on-site performance measurements guide the recommendations I make — not assumptions about what should work. If I tell a client their home needs a particular airtightness target or ventilation rate, it’s because I’ve tested and commissioned enough real homes to know what that number means in practice, not because it’s the standard line.
Every guide in the HiPer Haus Learn section is written from this same measured, on-tools experience — real blower door results, real commissioning data, real service penetrations sealed on site.
Want a measured answer, not a guess?
Book a blower door test, ask about MVHR for your project, or talk through a comfort or moisture issue in an existing home.