[Greenbuilding] first certified Passive House in Canada

[jfstraube]

I think it is clear that you can build a PassivHaus standard home anywere.  The question is, should you?  More nuanced, the question is, "is the PH standard the optimal home for the location and purpose envisaged".
CMHC has supported the construction of a whole bunch of Net Zero Energy houses across Canada, a  more stringent energy standard than PH. This does not mean it is a good idea.  However, the design teams are, under the target of Net Zero, allowed to trade off the cost of insulation, the cost of airtightness, and the cost of generation for their specific building and the climate in which it is built.  PH is more dogmatic.

I really like PHPP, but it is an Excel spreadsheet, not magic.  R2000 home builders have been required to use a more sophisticated computer program and blower door test to verify their energy use compliance since forever (OK, 20 years).  They just have not set sufficiently low targets.  I strongly agree that if PH can convince people to use a model to predict energy use and do a blower door test to confirm airtightness, then it will be a huge benefit.  But one does not need to follow some of the dogmatic rules, like 0.6 at 50, to get a durable, healthy, afforable, and low energy building.  There are numerous other tried and true methods. PH is just one set of numbers that one group chose. 

PS  The PH standard DEFINITELY has a requirement of 0.6 ACH at 50 Pa.  The 10% overheating is rarely listed. 
See for example Wikipeadia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house#Requirements
and
Passive House USA
http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PassiveHouseInfo.html
 

PSS If Mike Holmes is behind it, then PH just dropped in my estimation. Pop culture, yes, science and fact, NOT!


On 2011-01-25, at 3:50 PM, Ross Elliott wrote:
> 
>  
> My own take on Passive House is that it makes complete sense pretty much everywhere. Even if a house can’t or doesn’t want to meet the rather rigorous energy standard, the PHPP modeling process provides an excellent insight into the performance of the building anyway. As you can see from the press release, Passive House doesn’t need to be a “science project”, just good sustainable design. Since there are Passive Houses being built as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska (twice as cold as Ottawa), and also in hot, humid climates like Atlanta, it appears this standard has widespread applicability.
>  
> Mike Holmes just called Passive House “an up & coming design standard ” – how more mainstream popular culture can you get?
>  
> Although we won’t see tract builders embracing PH any time soon, I do believe there are a lot of custom builders and homebuyers who have been just waiting for something like this. What’s not to like about getting a 90% reduction in energy costs with less than a 10% upgrade cost?
>  
> There’s a pile of misinformation out there about Passive House, so just to set the record straight, there’s only three mandatory requirements: 1) less than 15 kWhrs / m2 / yr. heating or cooling load, 2) less than 120 kWhrs / m2 / yr. total energy load, and 3) less than 10% overheating. Anything else you’ve heard may be recommended best practices but are not mandatory.
> Ross Elliott LEED-AP, CPHP, RASDT, RHSD
> President
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John Straube
www.BuildingScience.com



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