Passive House Rocky Mountains
Passive House Rocky Mountains serves Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, and Wyoming. We are a group of Passive House professionals, practitioners, developers, and supporters who advocate for the international Passive House building energy standard.
Passive House Rocky Mountains regularly engages with the community to promote better building standards. We hold monthly online meetings and frequently collaborate with local organizations like the Colorado Green Building Guild. We are especially engaged in wildfire prevention and resilient rebuilding with Passive House.
In 2023, we held the Colorado Ice Box Tour in Fort Collins, Louisville, and Denver. We built two boxes, one to code and the other to the Passive House standard, and filled them with ice. Then, we left them in the sun for two weeks. The ice in the code-built box always melted first, proving the Passive House standard to be better at keeping out the hot air. It was a lot of work, but it was a fantastic way to demonstrate why building standards matter.
We are always looking for volunteers who are ready to engage with our community! Reach out if you’re interested.
See our Substack for recordings of past meetings and updates for future meetings.
Rebuilding from the Marshall Fire
After the Marshall Fire destroyed over 1,000 homes in 2021, the community rallied for safer, more resilient housing that could mitigate future climate-fueled disasters. Local government officials, utility providers, and private business stepped up to coordinate efforts that would make rebuilding to the Passive House standard more affordable. As a result, several homeowners in the area are now enjoying comfortable, efficient buildings that are more resilient to wildfires. Many of their stories were showcased during our 2023 PHN Conference in Denver. You can listen to the recordings here.
Years later, Passive House Rocky Mountain members are passing on what they learned. Andrew Michler from Hyperlocal Workshop teamed up with Birgitte Messerschmidt from the National Fire Protection Association during a recent PHN Presents to share their experience in wildfire rebuilding and fire safety. Watch the recording here.
