passivhaus / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Passive home designer Harold Orr, one of the original high performance homes
Passive solar home design

The principal designer of the house that inspired the global Passivhaus movement reflects on the project that started it all.

...PassivHaus program that started in Germany and eventually became the global  Passive House movement. Here is a presentation Harold recently gave on the Saskatchewan Conservation House, which he has graciously allowed us to republish. His contributions to the building industry are immeasurable. The Saskatchewan Conserva...

Passive House in Quebec
Passive House

The Passive-Aggressive House - Our History of a Passivhaus Build

First, the background to this Passivhaus My partner and I are geeks. Our idea of a romantic dream was to build a house so well insulated you could heat it with a hairdryer. For added fun, we wanted to do this on a tight budget while raising a young child. The hairdryer part wasn’t a pipe dream – it’s a common way of de...

Passive House on a Budget - The Damn Near Passive house
Passive House

The Un-certified but 'Damn Near' Passive House.

...PassivHaus standards for energy efficiency if proven to be cost efficient. Assemble a team of highly skilled journeyman trades craftsmen and women that appreciate the value of doing it right and want to participate. Work with suppliers in achieving our budget while maximizing awareness of how we selected their products...

The passive solar home in Lac Kenogami, Quebec
Passive solar home design

Ecohome design wins House of the Year Award from Green Builder® Magazine

The first house designed under our Passive Solar Index (PSI) program won "Most Resilient House" in the 2013 Green Builder® Home of the Year Awards. The Kenogami House is a living laboratory of high performance design and technology, called "The Most Resilient House in North America" by Alex Wilson, founder of the Resil...

Passive solar house design
Passive solar home design

Passive solar home design

Homes heated by the sun's free heat! Passive Solar Houses are aptly named because there are no wires, panels or batteries and nothing to break down. It's just about design, and it isn't a new concept. Humans around the globe have been incorporating passive solar design features into their homes for thousands of years. ...

Tiny Houses encouraged Washington State for Affordable Housing WA
Tiny house

Tiny Houses - Washington State promotes tiny homes & Eco-villages for Affordable Housing in WA

WA Paves the Way for Tiny Home Eco-Villages: Tiny houses, also colloquially referred to as tiny homes, are both an increasingly attractive and affordable housing option as well as a trending alternative lifestyle choice across North America and Canada as people realize that “quality of life” doesn’t depend on surroundi...

How to choose Triple pane, high performance windows
Windows and doors

Our top tips for buying high-performance windows

...Passivhaus certified. 0,3 ≤ SHGC ≤ 0,6.  Choosing windows based on home orientation When you start shopping in the area of high performing windows bear in mind which direction they face, as you will be entering the realm of Low E coatings (Low Emissivity). This is a metallic film that is applied to windows which f...

Built to ENDURE: the Net Zero Heat Kenogami House
Efficient home design

The Kenogami House: designed to ENDURE

Alex Wilson is the founder of the journal Environmental Building News, Green Building, GreenSpec and recently the Resilient Design Institute. The following is a brief description of his vision, and the steps our team took as designers, builders and homeowners to meet that criteria for the Kenogami House.  The acronym: ...

Building a Passive House that's LEED Certified too - an Owner's Tale
Passive House

An owner/builder's account of building a Passive House

Building a Passive House that's also LEED certified This is an owner blog EcoHome posted following the personal experience of Sarah Cobb and William Murray of Rocket Construction Inc. as they built a home in Abercorn, Montérégie, Quebec. Setting the bar about as high as you can, they targeted both LEED certification an...

Passive House certification - PHI or PHIUS? The Spring House Passive House
Passive House

Everything you need to know about Passive House certification

...Passivhaus Planning Package (or PHPP), and did not have permission to change the software often stated as converting it from metric to English measurement units (although again, opinions vary). Feist also stated that PHIUS had begun a “competing professional certification scheme” while not following their official Pass...