“Cold Air Distribution – a novel approach to meeting Passive House cooling loads?” [free for PHCA members]

By Passive House California , May 27, 2024 -

Cold air distribution (CAD) is a proven strategy for reducing mechanical capital and operating costs and carbon emissions that has been implemented in industrial and commercial buildings. Indeed, ASHRAE has a published designer’s guide to CAD. To date, CAD has not been applied to residential buildings, due to concerns with occupant discomfort, condensation, and mold growth. Experimental testing has been conducted to validate CAD as a suitable cooling strategy for…

Dealing with Heat Waves: Can we use the PHPP to size cooling equipment?

By Passive House California , May 26, 2023 -

Given ever more frequent heat waves and the increasing need for active cooling in Passive House residential buildings, the issue of correctly sizing cooling equipment is key if we are to maintain thermal comfort, at low power. Sizing the cooling equipment properly becomes critical, and once the work has gone into to creating a working PHPP model, can we safely use the tool to size cooling equipment? This presentation looks…