Passive House is a method of building that was developed in Germany and Austria through the Passiv Haus Institute and has been established now allover the world. In North America Passive House is represented by the Canadian Passive House Institute (CanPHI) inVancouver. This method, unlike other green practices, is monitored through time, tested and proven to deliver the highest energy efficient buildings that are thermally comfortable, airtight and intelligently designed and built.
The basics are: passive solar orientation, thick thermal envelope with minimal thermal bridges, triple-pane insulated frame windows and doors, HRV for fresh air and residual heat. From the basics you can incorporate several other green building design features such as photovoltaic panels, on-demand water, green roofs, etc. At Summerhill Construction, we strive for Passive House builds and would love to talk about your new home plans and how we could build it to the maximum efficiency.
Passive House is more than just a building system ,it is a way of life. By leaving the smallest possible energy and waste imprint it gives us the opportunity to be actively involved in shaping the future of our home planet. By creating a living environment for us and our families that is beneficial for our health and well being it gives us a chance to shape our own futures.
As organic beings we function best in environments that provide us among other things with optimal temperature, fresh air and optimal air movement through a building. Passive House building have HRV systems that supply and remove optimal amount of air from each room in the house. It also takes into consideration aspects like the temperature gradient from windows to the back of the room and between the floor and the ceiling. Attention to such details creates a living environment that is clearly distinct from an ordinary house and reflects in our health and well being
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Passive house has also developed a unique and empirically tested computerized system that allows to derive the optimum values by entering and balancing certain parameters. For example, it will show how a certain window type will effect the energy consumption over a given time frame (kW/h) It allows the prospective homeowner to balance current expenditures vs future energy savings. It is an invaluable tool .