projects
passive home design
How does a Passive Home work?
It’s sort of like building a thermos with really good ventilation. When you want a space to naturally maintain its temperature—whether it’s as small as a thermos or as large as a home—you’re going to be following many of the same rules. Passive homes need to be air-tight, have continuous insulation, triple-paned windows, and a great system for controlling air quality.
Why would someone build a Passive Home?
Because passive houses are so energy-efficient, heating and cooling them costs dramatically less than in other homes. And because internal air temperature is so consistent, passive homes are more comfortable than a house where the inside temps oscillate between sweltering and freezing.
The air quality in a passive house will also be exceptional, eliminating any staleness or fumes. Air in a passive house is constantly circulated and filtered.
Passive homes are also more resilient to power outages or other emergency situations. Even without electricity, the home will stay at a comfortable temperature for far longer than the average building, making it a popular choice for hospitals and senior residences.
How is a Passive Home built?
Passive home is made with the same materials, methodologies, workers, and schedules as a non-passive home.
Most of the passive house work takes place in the design stage because every element has to work together to produce the benefits of the methodology.
It doesn’t make sense to have a fresh air exchanger if the home’s windows leak. So generally it’s a matter of beefing up the insulation and thermal isolation in the design. Actually executing a passive house build is fairly straightforward.
Also, a passive house doesn’t have to look modern. The key principles of passivity can be tailored to fit very different styles of buildings.
How expensive is it to build?
Generally, the larger the house, the less its passive elements will impact the overall budget. Building a more normal-sized passive home will typically add between 5 to 10 percent to the construction budget. But it continues to get ever more affordable as research into new materials and efficiencies evolve.
I want to build one - what's first?
Find a passive house consultant or certified designer before you begin designing. The worst thing you can do is wait for the house to be designed and then try to add the passive elements on top.
Thermal Bridging Issue
The home’s design also needs to eliminate a phenomenon called thermal bridging which occurs when the temperature of one material transfers to another through physical touch, like a room feeling cold in winter because the steel beam supporting the floor is touching the freezing brick on the facade.
By thermally sealing off the interior of a space, a home’s internal temperatures are more stable by default. Implementing passive house techniques is enough to make a home 90 percent more energy efficient than the average house.