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

...Passive House or similar high-performance home may only require 1 to 3 kilowatts (kW) of heat on the coldest days. The problem of oversizing: If you install a stove rated for 10 kW (34,120 BTU/h) and only need 3 kW, you have two options: burn a small, low fire, or overheat the house. A low, smoldering fire starves the ...

...Passive House or Net-Zero Energy (NZE), the design-build model offers several distinct benefits. Single-source accountability and reduced risk In the UK, Australia, and North America, a common pain point in construction is accountability. In the traditional model, if a design flaw leads to a costly construction issue, ...

...Passive House construction, where they manage the potential for interstitial condensation. In Australia and New Zealand, building codes reflect a greater concern for vapor drive from the exterior, particularly in humid, subtropical regions. Here, smart membranes are often used in reverse-lap applications or on the exte...

...Passive House or LEED. Now that you know more about high performance building tapes, find more info about air sealing and green building techniques in the Ecohome Green Building Guide and these pages below: Choosing the right house wrap / WRB  / weather barrier - which is best? What is the difference between an air...

...Passive House in the Vancouver context While often used interchangeably, it is important for homeowners to understand the difference between Net Zero and Passive House, as they are two distinct approaches to high-performance building. A Passive House is primarily focused on one thing: creating an exceptionally comforta...

...passive house performance windows when we built our experimental high-performance demonstration homes: like the LEED Platinum Kenogami House, the LEED V4 Platinum Edelweiss House, and the LEED Platinum solar air heated S-1600 Wakefield House. What are suspended-film insulating glass windows? What we personally have yet...

...passively, and help reduce heating and cooling costs in homes. For residential home building, these materials are tailored to transition within a precise human comfort window of 68°F (20°C) to 76°F (24.4°C). When the ambient room temperature rises above the material's melting point, it absorbs and stores the excess hea...

...passive solar orientation is inherently resilient; even if the active solar panels are covered in snow,  the building enclosure and passive heat gain will keep the house from freezing for days or even weeks. A As a case study in passive heating, the first Ecohome demonstration home (called the most resilient house in N...

...Passive House builds. Flat roofs on homes must be carefully done to ensure they shed water safely.  Maintenance and waterproofing Pros: Can be used as functional outdoor space or for mounting HVAC and solar equipment out of sight. Cons: Requires high-performance waterproofing membranes (like EPDM or TPO) and regular...

...passive; ask for homes that have been tested and verified with a blower door test after construction or that hold green home certifications such as LEED, BREEAM, Passive House or Net Zero. Passive heating though south facing windows in the Champlain House. Image © Studio MMA Architects Workarounds for more affordab...

...passive solar heat gain so you want to limit windows, but you still want natural light. I could see this really being a thing for anyone trying to build to Passive House standards or get a  home Passive House certified, since performance targets are so strict that windows that don't offer solar heat gain mean you need ...