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.