PHCA Community Meeting | What’s in a name? History and precedents to PassivHaus

Have you ever encountered confusion when discussing PassivHaus? Or is it Passive House? And what about Passive Solar – what does that have to do with it?   What does a German Standard have to do with building in California? Let’s look back in history at the ideas and case studies that influenced the creation of the first Passive House standard.   Considering the American and Canadian context, we’ll untangle trends and…


2025 California Green Building Conference & PHCA

Passive House California (PHCA) and the Passive House Network (PHN) shared a joint booth at the 2025 California Green Building Conference, hosted by the U.S. Green Building Council California (USGBC-CA) in San Francisco on May 22, 2025. Throughout the event, various PHCA members presented their Passive House projects, showcasing innovative designs and high-performance building strategies aligned with the Passive House standard. [caption id="attachment_6495" align="alignnone" width="259"] Brian Pearson and Susie Harris at the PHCA and PHN booth[/caption] [caption id="attachment_6494"…


Passive House: Enhancing Air Conditioning Performance (and more), Without Forcing Change | by Brian Pearson & Susan Diana Harris

I had a hand in writing an article promoting Passive House and the legislative effort we are making to get it into the CA code: California can fast-track a guideline that reliably reduces heating and cooling energy demand up to 70% below the current Title-24 baseline: Passive House. Together, we can put this climate resilience standard onto builders’ and owners’ radar, simply by adding a voluntary Passive House alternate pathway into…