an elegant path to net-zero

Introduction to Passive House

 
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What is Passive House?

In the simplest terms possible, Passive House is a way of designing and building homes that are highly efficient, durable, comfortable. and beautiful. It the most stringent global performance-based energy efficiency standard for buildings today, and is applicable to projects of all scales, from residential to commercial architecture. Rooted in the Canadian Super-Insulated Homes of the 1970’s, Passive House was first developed into a building standard by the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt, Germany in 1991. In the mid-2000’s the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) was founded, and since then the standard has been further developed to reflect the variety of North American climates and integrate with established American energy rating systems such as the Home Energy Rating Standard (HERS) index and Energy Star.

Passive House design and construction relies on a set of principles that allow the home’s energy systems to function using as little electricity as possible while providing a healthy and comfortable interior environment year-round:

  • Creation of an airtight building envelope, which prevents the loss of conditioned air and related moisture problems

  • Continuous insulation of the entire envelope, minimizing thermal bridging

  • Use of high-performance windows and doors to let in plenty of natural light without compromising the integrity of the building envelope

  • Use of balanced heat and moisture-recovery ventilation allowing minimized space conditioning systems

  • Good management of solar gains to exploit the sun's energy when temperatures drop and provide comfort during warm weather with integrated shading measures and thermal mass

 

why passive house?

Passive Houses..

  • Are comfortable and easy to operate

  • Are durable and resilient

  • Have quieter interior environments

  • Offer built-in pest control via sealed building envelope

  • Provide filtered fresh air 24/7

  • Minimize mechanical systems

  • Maintain even temperatures year-round

  • Lower heating and cooling costs by 70-80%

Our passive house services

Principle designers Barbara Gehrung and Mark Graham are both Certified Passive House Consultants with years of experience designing and certifying buildings to the Passive House standard. A native of Germany, Barbara has been involved in the Passive House movement in the U.S. since PHIUS was founded in 2007.

As a firm, we provide Passive House services tailored to each client, from retrofits that dramatically improve the efficiency of existing buildings to full PHIUS 2018+ certification for new projects. Many of our clients fall somewhere in between, desiring a net-zero or net-positive home but deciding to forgo the additional steps of certifying. We will discuss all options in depth during your initial consultation and provide a recommendation based on your needs and desires.

As registered CPHC’s, we also provide Passive House consulting services to individuals, institutions, and other design professionals. For examples, please see the award-winning projects in our consulting portfolio.

If you have any questions about Passive House and how it might apply to your project, don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to hear from you.