![]() Why would someone want a passive house?īecause passive houses are so energy-efficient, heating and cooling them costs dramatically less than in other homes. Implementing passive house techniques is enough to make a home 90 percent more energy efficient than the average house. Photo courtesy Sam McAfeeīy thermally sealing off the interior of a space, a home’s internal temperatures are more stable by default. The house that appears blue was renovated to passive house standards by Fabrica718, and this image makes clear that it is leaking much less interior heat than its neighbors. This thermal image by Sam McAfee of SGBuild shows the surface temperature of a row of Brooklyn townhouses during a winter night. The home’s design also needs to eliminate a phenomenon called thermal bridging which occurs when the temperature of one material transfers to another through physical touch, like a room feeling cold in winter because the steel beam supporting the floor is touching the freezing brick on the facade. Passive homes need to be air-tight, have continuous insulation, triple-paned windows, and a great system for controlling air quality. "It’s sort of like building a thermos," said Ken Levenson, "but it’s a thermos with really good ventilation." When you want a space to naturally maintain its temperature-whether it’s as small as a thermos or as large as a home-you’re going to be following many of the same rules. When you call a house a "passive house" you’re saying that it was built to the PHI’s rigorous standards for insulation and energy use. ![]() Now, they’re used by thousands of architects, developers, and contractors all over the globe. ![]() These best practices were developed over decades of research conducted by the Passive House Institute (PHI) in Darmstadt, Germany. To be designated as a passive house, a building must embody a set of specific best practices that seal it from outside temperatures while maintaining a stable inside temperature and high air quality. "It’s a comfort standard and a methodology."Įssentially, a passive house is designed to be extremely energy-efficient so that it doesn’t take a lot of power to heat or cool. "Passive house is the radical notion that you can reliably and consistently design a building that works for humans," explained Barry. You hear about passive homes popping up everywhere from San Diego to Vienna, but what exactly is a passive house? And how are they built? Curbed spoke with passive house pros Ken Levenson of NY Passive House and San Francisco-based architect Bronwyn Barry to understand the green building trend that’s cutting carbon emissions and energy bills. ![]()
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