New York, NY February 10, 2021 –  The North American Passive House Network announced today that it is hosting a building ventilation symposium titled Let’s Clear The Air: Ventilation, High Performance, and Passive House, to be held online, Wednesday, March 10, at 2 – 5:30 PM EST. The symposium will gather experts in building ventilation and the application of Passive House high-performance targets.

In designing and building high-performance buildings, ventilation is often an underappreciated component. The pandemic has made the health implications of good ventilation more obvious but the energy impact remains largely obscured. 

Yet when we target radical whole-building energy efficiency, ventilation energy impacts become significant and obvious. The Passive House Institute has helped lead the effort to advance ventilation testing, protocols and certification of components to ensure that high-quality ventilation is a core solution of high-performance building outcomes. 

Why does the Passive House methodology demand certain testing and how did we get here? What’s next? What are the implications for whole building systems design and long-term performance? 

This symposium tackles these questions, providing a common frame of reference, greater clarity and shared understanding, in the pursuit of growing high-performance building and Passive House markets.

“We are excited to host this important symposium event,” said NAPHN Executive Director, Ken Levenson. “As we push toward more robust health, efficiency and climate outcomes in our built environment, more questions arise – from professional practitioners and industry players. This event is meant to answer many of those questions and provide a baseline to help move the American building industry forward toward our zero-carbon emissions future .”

As carbon emissions goals tighten, efficiency demands grow, and Passive House performance levels are normalized, this focus on ventilation performance is an opportunity for the ventilation industry around the world and in the US. If component testing outputs can provide Passive House modeling data inputs, and products can meet Passive House targets, there is an emerging high-performance global market that can be served to the benefit of everyone.

Find out more information and register for the event at https://passivehousenetwork.org/events/ventilation-symposium/

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About NAPHN: 

The North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) is an independent national non-profit educational organization affiliated with the International Passive House Association (iPHA) and the Passive House Institute (PHI), located in Darmstadt, Germany. 

NAPHN has chapters based in New Jersey (www.njpassivehouse.com), Washington DC (www.passivehousenetwork.org), the Rocky Mountain Region (www.phrockymountains.com), Minnesota (www.passivehouseminnesota.org) and Pennsylvania (www.passivehousewpa.com).

NAPHN supports the widespread adoption of the international Passive House design and construction standards, building science principles and protocols, as a critical response to our climate crisis – providing unparalleled effectiveness in mitigating climate disruptions and adapting to rapidly changing environmental conditions. 

NAPHN is focused on the inflection point between policy and implementation. We partner with leading stakeholders across all building sectors, including governments, professional associations, manufacturers, owners, builders, labor organizations, and educational institutions – to make the transformation complete. https://passivehousenetwork.org 

About Passive House: 

Passive House is an international building standard and methodology, applicable to buildings of all kinds from office buildings to hospitals, new-build and renovations, that results in a dramatic 

drop in operational energy use, and more comfortable and healthy occupants – meant to aggressively mitigate our climate crisis while providing resilient adaptation. 

The Passive House Standard was developed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), an independent scientific research organization, located in Darmstadt, Germany, and includes specific requirements for energy use and comfort of occupants. The Passive House Standard is being successfully applied to thousands of buildings and millions of square feet around the world, from Boston to Beijing. 

The Passive House methodology starts with reducing cooling, dehumidification and heating loads by focusing, not on gadgets and active technology, but instead on fully integrated durable passive building components, such as proper continuous thermal-bridge-free insulation, continuous airtightness, high-performance windows and doors, and ventilation that includes a high-efficiency heat/energy recovery core, carefully calculated, and all integrated with the entire architectural process of design and construction. http://www.passivehouse.com http://www.passipedia.org 

View an Introduction to Passive house video: https://youtu.be/G1u5q8IbCak Not sure what Passive House means? Watch this video: https://youtu.be/fy9nnso306o