Should I use an air source heat pump in a Passive House?

That’s a whole whack of heating systems for a Passive House, you can for sure trim that down. In some areas, achieving Passive House Certification allows you to bypass normal building codes, so your location is very important, where are you building? 

And you may not know this but there are different Passive House programs, or rather different certifying bodies, like PassivHaus, Passive House Canada and PHIUS. So first you need to pick the one you want to work with, so start on this page here –

All you need to know about Passive House Certification

But to answer you question specifically, you’re talking about way more heat than you'll need there. Upfront it’s more expensive to build a Passive House, but cheaper in a couple of ways - longterm you have lower heating bills, that’s a no brainer becaues on average they are 90% more efficient, and as they love saying, “you can heat a Passive House with a hair dryer”. But there’s savings to be had in building costs as well, because you can reduce the size of the heating system, and you certainly don’t need that many!

So we can help you save a bunch of money on heating infrastructure, we just need to know what your concerns are. Do you want a wood stove for security, romance or because you have 5 acres of trees? Do you like warm floors? Or, do you want a heat pump for the lowest bills? (Heat pumps are 3 times more efficient).

And to help you pick the best heating system for Passive House, here are a few pages to check out :

• Radiant floors heated with air tubes      
• Choosing the Best Wood-Burning Stove or Fireplace
• Heat pumps - what they are and how they work