Passive House is a design and construction standard that cuts a building’s energy use and carbon emissions dramatically and puts comfort and health first. Everything PHN offers on it is here: what it is, how it’s certified, where it’s built, who builds it, and the policy that asks for it.
To learn to design or build one, start at the Training hub.
On this page: Understand it · Certify it · See it built · Build it · Make it policy · The three hubs
Understand it
What is Passive House?
The standard, the principles behind it, and why comfort and health come with performance.
FAQs
Plain answers to what people ask: what it is, what it costs, how certification works, and how to run a Passive House building, with the terms defined.
Certify it
Certification
What the Passive House Institute (PHI) certifies (buildings, professionals, and components), how building certification works, and the Certifiers working in the US.
Criteria for Buildings
PHI’s criteria for Passive House, EnerPHit, and PHI Low Energy Building, published in full by agreement with PHI.
See it built
Case studies
Passive House buildings across North America, arranged by climate, hot to arctic.
Reports
PHN’s research on Passive House cost, performance, and policy, and the reports from others that inform it.
Library
Books and guides we recommend for designing, building, developing, and modeling Passive House buildings.
Build it
Find a professional
Passive House designers, consultants, builders, and building certifiers, with their PHI certifications and where they work.
Find building components
Manufacturers in the US market that make components suited to Passive House, and which of them carry PHI certification.
Calculation tools
The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) and the tools that work with it.
Building incentives
Where PHI certification earns incentives, tax-credit points, and preferential financing in the US.
Make it policy
Policy and codes
Where Passive House stands in policy: the codes and incentives that recognize PHI certification, and our policy research.
Building codes
Where energy codes and zoning in the US and Canada accept PHI certification, and what each asks for at permit and at occupancy.
Advocacy
Making the case where you are: our research in brief, lessons from a policy fight in Minneapolis, code language to start from, and training for advocates.
Climate disaster support
Guides, reports, and stories for communities rebuilding after a disaster, to rebuild better.
The three hubs
Training, Community, and Passive House each gather their part of the site in one place.
Training
Courses and certification for the people who design, build, own, and advocate for buildings.
Questions about Passive House: info@passivehousenetwork.org.
Checked October 2026.
