Do you want to build a home that’s as beautiful as it is energy efficient? That’s where the Passive House concept comes in! A Passive House is an energy standard for buildings that uses five core principles: high-performance insulation, airtight construction, thermal bridge-free design, high-efficiency windows, and heat recovery ventilation. This method creates a super-efficient, comfortable, and healthy indoor environment that dramatically reduces energy consumption for heating and cooling.
Who Certifies a Passive House?
The Passive House Institute (PHI) and the Passive House Institute US (Phius) are two organizations that certify a Passive House. PHI is an independent research institute in Germany that was founded by Dr. Wolfgang Feist in 1996. The goal was to create buildings that had an energy consumption below 10 kWh/meter square through the creation of many tools and guidance for planning and implementing their principles.
Phius was created out of the Passive House concept, but with the North American climate in mind. It was co-founded by architect Katrin Klingenberg and builder Mike Kernagis in 2007. They created the first climate specific standard in 2015.
The Passive House Movement
The Passive House movement has elevated high performance buildings and updated building codes. The Passive House community has been great about gathering data on building performance, construction details, and elevating the concept.
Another great outcome from the Passive House movement is the “Pretty Good House” concept. This means that a house will be designed and built to use the Passive House Principles but might not go through the steps of energy modeling for the building. Using details from buildings that have been certified, a project can achieve a level of performance that is similar to that of a certified Passive House.
How We Use the Passive House Concept
At Carlisle Classic Homes, we have experience and training with the Phius brand of the Passive House concept, but most of our projects fall into the “Pretty Good House” concept. Though, all of our projects, where our scope of work includes some of the building envelope, perform much better than “pretty good!”
A majority of our team have taken Phius training or have attended a Passive House conference to stay informed. On staff we have a Building Performance Specialist, Brian Cowan, who is both a Certified Passive House Builder and a Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC), leading the detailing on our buildings. Brian also lead the Pacific NW chapter of the Phius Alliance group, a regional group of Phius certified professionals sharing knowledge about all things Passive House!
Brian Cowan – Building Performance Specialist, Phius Certified Builder, CHCP. BPI
We carry this knowledge and the five core principals into everything we do, looking for every opportunity from early-on in the design process to suggest a better-performing alternative. The Passive House concept revolves a lot around an understanding of physics, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to the attention to details!
Let us know how you’d like to incorporate the Passive House concept into your home build!
