NARI Bay Area is having an event to recruit members and do a meet & greet on the evening of Oct. 13th, at 2815 7th St, Berkeley, the window & door showroom for Golden State Lumber. This is an excellent opportunity to let builders and suppliers know that we want them to use the Passive House standards for construction and materials, and encourage them to do any training, and get…
Darmstadt/Wuppertal, Germany. The ceremony for the 2021 Passive House Award was held online this time, but was equally exciting. During the 25th International Passive House Conference in the Historic Town Hall of the city of Wuppertal, the Passive House Institute presented the Passive House Award to 14 awardees from nine countries. Most of them participated in the ceremony via video stream and celebrated online. The awardees of the 2021 Passive…
We're at a decisive moment. How can our building industry, our communities, financial institutions and everyday building occupants drive transformational change? We think Passive House education and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing has the power to change our vocabulary, our conversations, and our culture. Let's expand the conversation. We want your ideas, your proposals, for our 2022 Passive House conference. Read the event message and give us your great ideas. We want…
From the moment outside air enters the system, a Zehnder system (and its filters) are designed to keep air contaminants from entering your home, while efficiently recovering heat (or cooling) from the air exiting your home. Do you know every level of filtration available to you for your Zehnder recovery ventilator? If you’ve recently installed one of these units, or purchased a house that included one already, you hopefully know…
Darmstadt, Germany. The winners of the Passive House Award 2021 will be announced this Friday. The jury of the international architecture competition has already selected 20 finalists. Within the framework of the 25th International Passive House Conference, the Passive House Institute will present a total of 14 awards to the architects of the highly efficient and impressive buildings. The awards ceremony will take place at the Historic City Hall in the…
The Net Zero Conference is back, and Passive House California (PHCA) is proud to announce that we’re an official Conference Partner! Join leaders in sustainability for the 8th annual conference and expo—the largest in the world dedicated to net zero, decarbonization, and climate resilience. This year, they're expanding their focus areas to create synergistic learning opportunities across industries. In addition to highlighting sustainability trends in buildings, energy, water, waste, and…
This month’s EpiPHany Corner, while not directly related to Passive House, does provide some relevant insights associated with the production of renewable energy — specifically, the misinformation regarding the significance of bird deaths from wind turbines. The fact that the misinformation is largely funded by the fossil fuel industry is not an epiphany. Indeed, a significant number of birds are lost to collisions with turbine blades, but research into causes…
CLICK HERE to read the August 2021 Passive House California Newsletter in pdf format in case you have missed it. SIGN UP for PHCA newsletter here.
Passive House is an International building standard that is calculated through a software program that is strictly for the climate zone you are planning on building in. The PH Standards focus on 5 basic principles. Un-interrupted Continuous Insulation around the Whole Building Envelope Airtight Building Envelope Thermal Bridge Free Really good windows with proper U factors and Solar Heat Gain Coefficients Balanced Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery Once I learned…
CLICK HERE to read the July 2021 Passive House California Newsletter in pdf format in case you have missed it. SIGN UP for PHCA newsletter here.
The most thermally-inefficient parts of a high-performance residential building are the windows. The insulating values are usually in the range of R-3/inch (typical) to R-10/inch (very high-quality). When compared to typical wall insulation of R-21/inch, thermal movement is going to take the path of least resistance—the windows. Even more importantly, if you want to realistically understand how a building component performs, you need to accurately evaluate it. Passive House windows…
Passive House protocols, when applied to the design and construction of a building, will dramatically reduce the energy required for heating and cooling. This reduced energy for heating and cooling lowers the overall energy use significantly. As a result, the amount of energy used for water heating, lighting, refrigeration, appliances/electronics (plug loads) become more impactful and more important to manage. Consider the example below. The Pie Chart on the left…
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