Passive Houses in the U.S.

Adam Stein | January 12, 2009

The Director of the Passive House Institute US offers some more info

Can you stand one more post about energy efficiency in houses? Our earlier post about the Passivhaus standard in Germany attracted a comment from Katrin Klingenberg, Director of the Passive House Institute US, that merits wider circulation. A version of her comment appears below. Also, check out the organization’s web site, which, helpfully, is in English and covers a lot of the frequently asked questions about Passive Houses.

On a related note, here’s a fun proposal that Obama convert the White House into a Passive House.

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Katrin Klingenberg writes:

Passive Houses based on the German Standard has been around in the United States since 2002. We have many different buildings in various climate zones already on the ground and implemented. The Berkeley project is just one example of many. I built the first Passive House in Urbana Illinois in 2003. It turned 5 this past September and the performance has been measured, evaluated, published and confirmed. It really works beautifully! It is a pleasure living in it! Recently we tested the indoor air quality. Compared to existing homes in town my home was the only one to comply with the indoor air requirements of the EPA. The Germans calibrated what builders in the ’70s did not get to.

Since early 2007 my partner and I have developed the Passive House Institute US. We are a partner of the German Institute and have been working on over 20 projects during the last 5 years, including multi-family projects. Selected highlights of the built projects are documented in our most recent book, “Homes for a Changing Climate — Passive Houses in the U.S.”

Passive Houses work not only in Europe but in all climate zones. They do not have to be boxes and can have windows that open. 500 square feet per person is a recommendation and not a requirement. There are many different ways to construct and insulate a Passive House. They do not have to be oriented perfectly, as there are Passive Houses with next to no opportunity for solar gains in cities, for example. In a number of regions throughout the US and Canada there are local Passive House groups at work and Passive House consultants have begun working on Projects for new and retrofit applications. The Passive House movement is growing rapidly.

I also like to mention that Germany has solar radiation comparable to Alaska! If they can do it there you can do it anywhere, certainly in the United States where we have sun aplenty.

Image by Unkrig.

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Comments

1. By Tom Harrison on January 13, 2009 9:37 AM

Back in the 1970's, my sister got a graduate degree in architecture from MIT. To help pay her bills, she designed an addition to a house for my parents, who were moving to Maine.

Using what she learned then, she designed a house with a lot of insulation, a lot of south-facing double-glazed windows and a few other basic elements of passive solar. The oil burner is almost unnecessary and has been now for 30 years.

Our neighbors in Maine sold super-insulated modular houses made in Denmark to Mainers. These houses needed no boiler at all.

Amory Lovins of Rocky Mountain Institute has been promoting this concept for ages: the more you conserve, the fewer resources not only go into maintaining the house (or car, plane, etc.), but the less are needed to make it in the first place.

It's great to see passive solar getting some attention.

For all the talk about the new smart grid, about wind, solar, and other renewables, and whether or not we should build coal or nuclear plants, we often miss the big picture.

Creating efficient products, and conserving the energy we do have is almost always the easiest solution. It's also almost always the most immediate. Oh, and it provides jobs. Now.

There's simply no doubt that we have the capacity to use less, to build smarter, and to dramatically reduce our demand for energy intensive patterns of consumption.

But... do we have the will and foresight, as well as the stamina and leadership needed to take this message to the people? The country needs to hear the problem and solution in a way that is plain, clear, and compelling. If we don't, history says changes today will not last.

Perhaps President Carter's failure in the 70's was to truly explain and convince Americans of the need for the programs that were enacted during his administration. When the immediate issue of high gas prices stopped affecting people directly, Carter's plan was dismantled by Reagan just a few years later.

I hope this time around, we can find ways to explain the need for carbon and GHG control, as well as the need to energy security, food security and a few other related issues. If we do, we can provide the right incentives to people and businesses to take positive action of their own accord.

It doesn't seem to me that people will take any meaningful actions without a personal reason to do so. With oil prices low, it's got to be something else that wakes us up.

Only then will building a super-insulated house make sense. Until then it's as much of a novelty as my Prius or the TerraPass sticker in the window.

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A reply to Tom Harrison's comment
by Mary Jude on May 13, 2009 4:04 PM

Tom -- I'm wondering if you can remember the name of those Danish homes your neighbors imported? Back in the early '80s, I somehow came upon an older couple down on Deer Isle (Sunrise, I think) who were doing this and I can't remember the name of the homes. Hard as I try, I can't find them in Google. Would be thrilled if you could help me figure this out? Tx -- emjay

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A reply to Mary Jude's comment
by Tom Harrison on May 14, 2009 5:01 AM

Their names were John and Mary Hughes and their store was either on Southwest Harbor Road or Dunham Point Road (neither of which had names back then :-). I am pretty sure the houses were from Denmark, although another Scandinavian country is possible. The time was around 1985, I think. The houses were delivered as pre-cut (metric, I remember) lumber and materials which were assembled from scratch on site. There were several designs to choose from. That's all I recall. Hope that helps!

Tom

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A reply to Tom Harrison's comment
by Mary Jude on May 29, 2009 9:22 AM

Thanks, Tom -- I didn't remember that being the name of these folks, but they definitely lived on Deer Isle and their son was an EMT in Bangor (where I'm from). My memory is that if you ordered the homes, they came in big boxes on a ship and then the Danish carpenters came along (you put them up, at the time) and put them together. They used the heat from their reefers, etc. . I loved those houses and always wanted to build one -- now we're looking at doing something like that within the next few years and I can't find much, if any, information about them. Thanks for your help -- I'll keep searching! Get back in touch with me (if you don't mind) if you happen to recall the name of the company?! mejude@roadrunner.com

Many thanks!!!

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2. By Steve Snyder on January 14, 2009 1:20 PM

It seems though that the passive house movement is geared toward those who are going to build a new house. What about those of us who live in an older house in an established neighborhood. What's possible there? To what extent can passive house principles be applied.

It would be interesting to see case studies where for example, the goal is to minimize energy consumption while maintaining the architectural integrity of the house. Another example might be a case where the architectural integrity is not that important.

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3. By Adam Stein on January 14, 2009 1:26 PM

Steve -- you can find an article on passive house retrofits here (pdf). It's pretty dense, though, if you're just looking for some general info.

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4. By Joe on January 14, 2009 5:38 PM

My wife is a licensed architect in Italy and she is working on a project now for her parents home outside Trento which is based on CasaClima standards and uses a lot of the Passive technology concepts.

For example the house pulls air from long tubes run underground to assist in maintaining temperature at a consisten grade throughout the house year round. This is much more efficient that radiant heating for example.

The window systems are suggested to be inoperable however - though they are looking at adding a few operable windows for some skylights.

It has been a very interesting project and hopefully we can share some more once it's done.

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8. By Liz on November 17, 2009 2:23 PM

Steve,
Here is a site translated from German which offers a lot of information on passive home building and also information on retrofit of older homes. http://www.passivhaustagung.de/Passive_House_E/PassiveHouse_directory.html Check out this site also: http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PHIUSHome.html

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