What is a Passive House?
Passive House may be a new term for you and your team. What exactly does it mean? Well, the term “Passive House” originates from the German phrase “Passivhaus,” used to describe a low-energy consuming, super-insulated, airtight, and well-ventilated home design. The concept incorporates passive solar heating through high-performance windows and doors while minimizing mechanical heating and cooling loads. The Passive House principles were first established by Dr. Wolfgang Feist in Germany in 1997. Since then, Passive House has evolved into an internationally recognized performance-based green building certification offered by Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) and by the Passive House Institute (PHI). While the concept initially from single family homes, passive house principles are now applied to office buildings, schools, and multifamily buildings.
Certification Process
To build a Passive House, the building must go through a rigorous design, modeling, verification and certification process to ensure an efficient, comfortable and healthy building. These tasks are usually executed by a Certified Passive House Consultant, an Energy Modeler, Certified Passive House Builder as well as the Passive House Verifier.
Benefits of Building Passive
- Comfortability: Optimal heating and cooling, for maximum comfort
- Structural durability: Built to last
- Lower energy bills: Significant reduction in overall utility costs
- Climate Resiliency: Ability to withstand extreme weather conditions
- Eligibility for 45L tax credits: Financial incentives for energy-efficient new construction
Why should you adopt Passive House building concepts?
Passive buildings are renowned for their comfortability and resiliency, even in the harshest of climates. According to Dr. Wolfgang Feist, the body heat of four people could keep a 215 square foot room warm in the dead of winter. While you won’t have to rely on body heat to heat your passive home, instead a highly efficient heating system will heat the home using a minimal heating load, much lesser than conventional construction. Due to the high-performance insulation, windows and airtight construction, passive homes can withstand extreme weather conditions. For example, during the recent Los Angeles wildfires, a Passive home survived the blaze due to the airtight construction and thoughtfully designed landscape.
How can we help?
Our energy efficiency experts at Leyton hold the credentials to ensure that your building meets Passive House design requirements from design throughout construction. The sooner you get engaged with Leyton, the better! Here at Leyton, we specialize in guiding clients to receive the 45L tax credit. The prerequisite programs for the 45L tax credit, Energy Star and Zero Energy Ready Homes, are also co-requisites to receiving the Passive House certification. If you are pursuing an Energy Star certification for your project, here’s some good news: a Passive House only will cost you roughly 0-3% more to construct than the baseline Energy Star certification. By connecting with Leyton, you can ensure that you receive maximum benefit for choosing to build passive.
