Barriers to Incorporating Passive House Concepts in Residential New Construction

By Passive House California , October 19, 2020 - News

Barriers to Incorporating Passive House Concepts in Residential New Construction Whitepaper: December 11, 2019 By Rick Winch, Ellen Steiner, Ph.D., and Jen Loomis, Ph.D. This white paper presents findings from a research effort to identify barriers to, and opportunities for, incorporating Passive House (PH) principles into California's Energy Code. Opinion Dynamics conducted a literature review and interviews with 16 subject matter experts in PH principles, beyond-code programming, and residential new…

PHCA Welcomes Small Planet Supply as a Platinum Sponsor

By Passive House California , October 15, 2020 - Sponsor

Small Planet Supply is a North-American company that provides high-performance building products.  They are dedicated to the mission of creating both classic and modern high-performing buildings, including those designed and built to both Zero Net Energy and Passive House standards. In addition to supplying high-performance building products and systems they provide education, and training in the use of energy-efficient building materials and practices. They are passionate champions of the concept that…

Advocates for efficient homes set a goal of building 1,000 units in Monterey County by 2030.

By Passive House California , October 15, 2020 - Member News

Article in the Monterey County Weekly features Sky Ranch Passive House written by Pam Marino, photo by Parker Seibold. When Jay Gentry was a young man he thought he was called to the ministry, but it didn’t quite work out as a career choice. Yet Gentry is a natural evangelist, and today he preaches but not from a pulpit. His message is about the need to combat the climate crisis through building…

How SMUD Re-Engineered itself to Focus on Decarbonization through Flexibility and Electrification

By Passive House California , October 10, 2020 - Decarbonization

How SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District) Re-Engineered Itself to Focus On Decarbonization Through Flexibility and Electrification. WATCH THE SEMINAR Summary of the Key Points Recently, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) became the first electric utility in the nation to begin evaluating all of its demand-side manage management programs in terms of avoided carbon emissions rather than average savings. In this Building Decarbonization Coalition webinar, Scott Blunk, Strategic Business Planner…

Wildfires, COVID-19 and Passive House in California

By Irina Tehrani , October 8, 2020 - Indoor Air Quality

Based on the great interest we noticed during the round table discussion “Passive House on the Frontlines: Wildfire Smoke & Indoor Air Quality” we would like to share the following two articles on this topic with you: “How Do You Sell a 'High-Performance Home?” by Lloyd Alter who is Design Editor for Treehugger “Keeping the Smoke Out” by Cameron Munro & Joel Seagren

Passive House on the Frontlines: Wildfire Smoke and Indoor Air Quality

By Irina Tehrani , October 6, 2020 - Indoor Air Quality

We know that the airtightness and filtered fresh air ventilation of Passive House design delivers superior indoor air quality to residents. These benefits are well-documented and are a key reason that many choose to live or work in Passive House buildings. But what happens when wildfire smoke creates unprecedented levels of pollution with astronomical particulate counts and AQI indices of 600 or higher? Is the superior indoor air quality of…

What is a Thermal Bridge?

By Passive House California , September 3, 2020 - Passive House 101

A thermal bridge ‘free’ design is one of the 5 fundamental principles of Passive House design and construction. But, what even is a thermal bridge? Why are they important? And how do we go about reducing or eliminating them? We hope to answer some of these questions and more with this post, which has been adapted from the 2016 iPHA Factsheet “What is a thermal bridge?“, originally authored by PHI’s…

CASE Passive House Low-rise Multifamily Reach Code Delivers Results!

By Passive House California , June 2, 2020 - Research

The California Codes and Standards team (CASE) released their final analysis and review of PHCA's Reach Code proposal and the results are truly remarkable! The summary findings show "In almost all cases, the EDR Margins achieved by the Passive House designs exceed the EDR Margin targets, and in most cases, the Passive House EDR* Margin is significantly higher than the target EDR Margins defined in the report." The report presented…

Reach Code Study reveals big opportunities to improve CA’s multifamily buildings

By Passive House California , June 1, 2020 - Research

Passive House California (PHCA) recently submitted their first Reach Codes study to the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) consultant team charged with analyzing the cost effectiveness of all proposed code improvement measures. The study specifically looked at improvements required beyond compliance with the 2019 energy code, for a low-rise multifamily building, to meet the equivalent performance targets set by the international Passive House Standard. The study not only uncovered a gaping…

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Feist | The Future of the Industry Post COVID-19

By Passive House California , May 28, 2020 - Research

Prof. Feist is discussing Passive House, the role of science and ethics in construction and the future of the industry post-COVID 19. This is a recording of a presentation Prof. Wolfgang Feist held for members of the press on Tuesday May 28, 2020. After the presentation, there is a compilation of questions asked in two Q&A sessions. CLICK HERE TO START THE VIDEO PRESENTATION. Power Point Presentation: CLICK HERE Press…

The “Duck Curve” – What it is – Why You Care

By Passive House California , May 28, 2020 - Decarbonization, News, Passive House 101

The intent here is a simplified explanation of how and why our patterns of electrical usage create issues for utilities, how rooftop solar impacts those issues, and how energy storage helps solve them. Think “Duck Curve for Dummies”. Two important facts about electricity are important to the explanation. First, electricity must be used as it is generated. A limited amount can be stored in batteries but it cannot be compressed…