Emu Report on Energy Standards: California Results

Emu Report on Building Standards, Appendix B, California Results, offers first-of-its-kind analysis and data on 11 single-family homes built to Passive House standards in a variety of climate zones throughout California, evaluating their performance on comfort, indoor air quality, durability, heating and cooling loads, and energy efficiency.

Emu, led by Enrico Bonilauri and Mariana Pickering, is a building science company focused on Passive House training, consulting and building certification. Emu is a valued partner of PHN.

“Our report looks at real buildings, comparing the outcomes of energy standards Title 24, Passive standards, and more,” said Emu Co-Founder and report author, Enrico Bonilauri. “We believe the results should be helpful to anyone concerned about building performance not just in terms of operational energy, but also for indoor air quality, resilience, and other value metrics.”

The report is an appendix to a larger national study by Emu titled Building Standards: Investigating the ability of 12 building standards to deliver resilient, healthy, and efficient buildings,.

“As California strives to lead the nation in decarbonizing homes and buildings and transitioning to clean energy, this research shows Passive House design for single-family homes is an indispensable solution,” said Ken Levenson, Executive Director of the Passive House Network. “Including all-electric Passive House design in building codes for single-family homes will deliver better, healthier, pollution-free housing that will also protect our energy grids.”

download the press release