Description

Overview: The flexibility of Passive House retrofits with PHI’s EnerPHit program is pushed to the limit.

Presentation 1:

Decarbonizing Public School Districts Through a Phased EnerPHit Approach: A Case Study in London

Presented by Nidhi Shah, RACE-Studio

Deep retrofit strategies can be delivered across public school districts using a phased approach aligned with real-world funding constraints. A case study featuring three schools in a London school district shows how the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) can be used not just as a modeling tool but as a decision-making framework to guide phased work toward EnerPHit-level performance, enabling deeper decarbonization. It shows how engagement—with schools, estates teams, and students—ensured that technical outcomes translate into meaningful, lasting impact.

Presentation 2: Rural Workforce Housing on a Shoestring

Presented by Buck Moorhead, Buck Moorhead Architect

This project is an opportunity to explore and understand the potential cost-effective envelope interventions that advance toward Passive House EnerPHit performance for the adaptive reuse of metal buildings as affordable workforce housing, and, in so doing, to leverage the substantial upfront carbon investment the metal building represents.

1.25 AIA & 1 PHI CEUs

Moderated by Roxanne Ryce-Paul, NYC School Construction Authority

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how a phased retrofit approach can be used to achieve deep decarbonisation (EnerPHit-level outcomes) within constrained public funding cycles. 
2. Apply PHPP as a strategic decision-making tool to test retrofit scenarios, evaluate sequencing, and improve confidence in predicted energy and carbon outcomes.
3. Analyze energy modeling in EasyPH as a design tool to help develop requisite understanding of projected heating and cooling demands and loads, leading to resultant estimated equipment requirements.
4. Apply a system for ballpark estimating construction costs, as well as a system for estimating operational energy costs to develop a cost/benefit analysis that compares Option Tiers to one another.