Passive heating / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

...Passive House. Buildings certified to Passive House require up to 90% less heating and cooling energy than an average building. The Bella Bella project was seen as an opportunity to put this change into practice. An RFP (request for proposal) was issued for a design/ build contract, including a basic program, design cr...

...passive solar design is that much of the heating load is carried by the heat coming in the windows, with energy modeling suggesting that about 30% of the house's total heat load is being passively provided by the sun. The final thing that always needs to be mentioned when discussing a building envelope is air-tightness...

...passively heated house would. Earthships don't produce anywhere near enough food to merit basing your entire home design around it.  The thing is, if you're thinking of building an Earthship you'll need a fairly large piece of land, so why not go for the healthier and more efficient passive heating option and build a g...

...passive design of the house. “The primary heat source is the sun,” he said. “The majority of the heating requirement is met by the windows. So really, our primary heat source would be passive solar heat gain” . The team also took advantage of deciduous trees on the south facing side of the building lot to effectively s...

...passively heated house will require less frequent injections of heat, making it possible to limit heating to off-peak hours with lower rates. So what's not to love? Why build a less comfortable, less durable and less efficient house if it's actually going to cost you more? Purely speculation on my part, but I think...

...passive solar home design and construction here This is the first in a series of videos on passive solar home construction, we begin with passive solar design basics, orienting the future house on the site to take full advantage of the free heat available from the sun while keeping it cool with natural shading in the s...

...passive heating and cooling, healthy living space, affordable to build and operate, resilient and flexible design.  The underlying goal of the Edelweiss House was to design and build a modestly-sized but functional home that would greatly outperform conventionally built homes, yet be on par with those homes in its ann...

...passive heating and cooling and writing about Passive House, we were in contact with Harold Orr, a world-renowned environmental engineer, pioneer of the very concept of 'green building'. and who was recently awarded the Order of Canada for his pioneering contribution to energy-efficient home construction. He was one of...

...passive heating and cooling. It is exposed to the sun in winter and shaded in the summer. Image via nationalparks.org   In reviving the ancient building technique of passive heating and cooling, the Saskatchewan Conservation House showed us what was possible in terms of solar heat collection and retention with modern...

...passive solar heating and cooling? Passive heating and cooling of homes is not new. The above image is of Mesa Verde National Park, the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings in Colorado, occupied from 700 to 1300 AD. This early North American settlement was shaded from the summer sun, but fully exposed to the sun in winte...

...Passive House standards, but Passive House Certification is mandatory to call a home "Passive House Certified." Allow us to explain...  What are the problems of Passive House in North America? The original Passive House certification program originates in Germany and is referred to as PHI - and the parameters of that p...