Blake the Builder: What is Passive House?

[tbdarchitect]

Duncan, Blake is referring to the "Lo-Cal House" and movement that started at U. of Illinois--Wayne Schick was the guy at the Small Homes Research Council. Also WIlliam Shurcliff and Harold Orr were pioneering back then. Shurcliff wrote a press release that describes the PH concept, including insulation, airtightness, ventilation, minimized mechanicals, not-oversized south windows, etc. When the energy crisis abated and the US stopped paying attention, Adamson and Feist ran with it.

[DuncanLithgow]

Great explanation of the passive house idea. But in this video Blake says "The passive house standard has its origins in the US in the 1970's". I can't find anything to support that claim. As far as I know it originated in Germany with Adamsen and Feist who developed the standard. Some early examples of super insulated homes in the US does not mean that the passivhaus concept originates there. Passivhaus is not simply another type of highly insulated house.

[ridealot58]

ah gheewsh who wrote that, the builder is inspired but wt f

[trunksy]

It seems that low-energy design is geared toward heating. Does this PHPP take into account energy demand for a house in deserts like Southern California or Arizona where cooling energy is a much higher than any heating energy? Forced-air cooling seems like such a waste of energy for cooling. I've seen videos of straw-bale homes where air-tightness is not a requirement and a healthier standard to follow while still maintaining super-insulation.

[seriousmaterials]

@trunksy You’re correct that in general energy savings design CAN yield greatest energy savings in heating dominated climates. But in hot climates an equivalent electric BTU can cost 3x gas. You want to save those dollars. In those climates, carefully tuned windows for max solar control rule (SHGC and windows with low-e coatings and spectrally selective suspended films) and can solve this for greatest savings. Walls can’t. Check out what PHI says: passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/F­AQ.html