Passive House is the world’s leading standard in energy efficient building construction. Developed in Germany in the early 1990’s, a Passive House uses up to 90% less energy for heating and cooling than a standard building. The approach’s appeal is in its simplicity: Exploit the sun’s energy, employ continuous insulation, seal out any leaks, and ventilate with heat recovery. The performance is meant to aggressively meet the climate crisis carbon reduction imperative while making a comfortable, healthy and affordable built environment.
A Passive House can be a school, an apartment building, a factory, an office, any building type. It can be modern, historical, vernacular, high or low – any design style. The only limit to what Passive House can be is what you can imagine.
A Passive House certification is performance based and certified by a third party to make sure the home performs to the highest standards.
The major components are:
- Super-insulated envelope
- Ultra-high-performance windows
- Airtight construction (0.6 air changes / hr at 50 Pascals)
- Eliminating or reducing thermal bridging
- Heat-recovery ventilation
- Using passive heat sources (solar of course, but also equipment, lighting, and occupants).
Passive House reliably delivers up to approximately a 90% reduction in heating and cooling demand and up to a 75% reduction in overall primary energy demand when compared to our existing building stock – meant to aggressively meet the climate crisis carbon reduction imperative while making a more comfortable, healthy and affordable built environment.
