The Certified Passive House Tradesperson (CPHT) course is the premier Passive House training for builders, tradespeople, and construction managers. It’s backed by over 30 years of the Passive House Institute’s (PHI) global technical leadership and scientific research, and it teaches what makes a building comfortable and healthy while using very little energy: airtightness, insulation without thermal bridges, good windows, and ventilation, built right on site. We teach it with our partner Emu Passive, and it prepares you for PHI’s exam.

Trainees around hands-on mock-up assemblies at an Emu Passive CPHT workshop.
Photo: Emu Passive

On this page: Upcoming courses · How the course works · What’s included · The exam · Paying for it · After the course

Upcoming courses

Emu Passive runs the courses: dates, prices, and registration are theirs, and this list follows their schedule.

Denver – In-person Boot Camp

November 2, 2026 – November 6, 2026

Denver, CO

$2,490

In-person Training · Focus Boot Camp

Register by October 28, 2026

Register

Boot camps coming: join the waitlist

Emu sets each boot camp’s dates once enough people sign up. Join the waitlist for the one near you.

3C-REN Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Boston Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Bozeman Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Brooklyn Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Denver Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Los Angeles Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Philadelphia Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Bay Area Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

Seattle Boot Camp

Join the waitlist

How the course works

The in-person Focus Boot Camp runs a week:

  • Building science course: two days in the classroom.
  • Hands-on workshop: two days of building and detailing the assemblies yourself.
  • The CPHT exam: half a day, at the end of the week.

Times can differ from city to city; each course listing gives its own. Emu also teaches online flex tracks, with new dates coming.

What’s included

  • Preparation for PHI’s CPHT exam, and the exam itself.
  • Continuing education credit: up to 32 AIA HSW learning units, or 16 PHI credits.
  • The Emu Hub, Emu’s online community of the builders and designers it has trained.
  • A year of PHN membership, which includes iPHA membership, when you finish the course.

The exam

PHI’s exam is taken online on PHI’s exam platform, in a classroom or from home. It has a common basic part and two specializations, building envelopes and building services: an hour for the basics and an hour for one specialization, or three hours for both. Course documents, textbooks, and a non-programmable calculator are allowed.

Pass it and you’re certified: no other qualification is required. The certificate names your specialization and is valid for five years, and you can be listed on PHI’s site.

Paying for it

Each course listing above gives Emu’s price. Programs in several states pay part or all of it: 3C-REN subsidizes a CPHT boot camp on California’s Central Coast, Xcel Energy pays 90% of a boot camp that ends in the CPHT exam, and New Jersey’s Clean Energy workforce program pays 75% of a course, up to $3,000.

Who qualifies and how to apply: training financial incentives.

After the course

Questions about a course or registration: Emu Passive. About CPHT and PHN: training@passivehousenetwork.org.

Checked October 2026.