The 13th Annual Passive House Conference was held in Germany last Friday, and though the event and building strategy are highly recognized in Europe, they have been completely overshadowed by other green building standards like LEED in the US. With 48% of greenhouse gas emissions annually released by buildings and 76% of all electricity generated by U.S. power plants consumed by the Building Sector, the Passive House should be part of every building industry professionals’ vocabulary.
Complements of The Passive House Institute US
Why is the Passive House worthy of more attention?
The Passive House is the most stringent energy standard available, with the ability to reduce energy usage of a home by 90% compared to traditional homes. The widespread implementation of the standard in residential building has the very real ability to exceed Architecture 2030’s challenge to design all new buildings, developments and major renovations “to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.”
- To date, over 30,000 passive homes have been completed in Europe
- Friday’s conference called for greater efforts to educate Europe’s design community on the strategy’s benefits
- According to attendees like Keeping the Lights On’s, Nils Davis, the event also made it very clear that, “We are way behind on energy efficient building here in the U.S. – in fact, essentially no one in the U.S. is doing this kind of building.”
These facts point to a real opportunity for U.S. organizations in our Building Sector. Read Nils Davis’ reports here.
Complements of Duke Research Blog
What is a Passive House?
The Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) defines a Passive House as, “a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people, electrical equipment, etc.”
Features include:
• Airtight building
• High R-value or low thermal heat Loss coefficient
• Energy efficient window glazing and frames
• Heat recovery ventilator (HRV) or energy recover ventilator (ERV)
• Hot water supply using regenerative energy sources
• Energy efficient appliances
• Incorporation of natural shade and lighting
“The result is an impressive system that not only saves up to 90% of space heating costs, but also provides a uniquely terrific indoor air quality,” states PHIUS.
Both USGBC and NAHB offer strong green building standards that pay off immensely when achieved, however the Passive House strategy deserves consideration and a first step here is to educate the right audiences – Architects being number one – on the many benefits of the Passive House.
Learn more:
Duke Research Blog
100K House
Passive House Institute
e-co lab
Great post on a topic that needs much more attention in the US. There are only about a dozen passive homes in the US, while Europe has tens of thousands and are even adopting the standard as their minimum building code in certain countries.
We are striving for the Passive House certification with PHIUS on one of the next homes we are building. We are finishing up a LEED Platinum home now, and Passiv simply blows it away in terms of energy efficiency. The trick is doing it on a budget in a country that offers few products to make it easy.
In Europe there are plenty of window, door, wall and mechanical assemblies that are made specifically for Passive House implementation. In the US we basically have one window manufacture and one model of ERV that even come close to qualifying for use in a Passive House. Saying we are behind is a radical understatement.
It will be interesting to see if this gains ground in the states with the building community already lobbying and crying about LEED being too strict and expensive for them to carry out. This is the US people. We’re supposed to be innovators. Why do we follow so far behind in building? It makes me sad inside.
Now, we need more certified Passiv Haus consultants that can take builders and developers through the certification process. PHIUS has been the only one capable of this for years in the states and is just now getting new people up and training across the country. Go to PHIUS’s next training and Passiv Haus conference. It won’t cost much and could turn into a rewarding small business.
Great post again, BTW. Keep it up.