Passive House Certification Revealed
An overview of certifying a building with the Passive House Institute: the essential requirements, and how to make the process run smoothly.
Refrigerants, Regulations, and Real-World HVAC Solutions
MEP engineer Kian Moozar and Brendan Grace of SpacePak Central Air on how the federal AIM Act, state codes, and new equipment are reshaping HVAC selection and installation in airtight buildings, from VRF and air-to-water to packaged and monoblock systems.
Passive House Strategies in Warm, Hot, and Humid Climates
Enrico Bonilauri of Emu Passive on applying Passive House in warm, hot, and humid climates: ventilation, moisture control, solar shading, and envelope design, with case studies and performance data on comfort, durability, and energy efficiency.
Passive House Cooling Strategies
Motorized exterior shading and integrated smart controls: their value in managing solar heat gains, daylight, glare, privacy, and views across building types, uses, and climates.
Renovation and Resilience: Lessons from a Panelized Deep Retrofit
Lessons from the REALIZE-CA demonstrations, supported by the California Energy Commission: panelized exterior overclad retrofits of 1960s low-rise multifamily townhomes, the construction challenges, and sensor data on how the retrofitted assemblies perform.
Don’t Judge a House by Its Cover: Natural Materials in Residential Design
The Cross Cabin, a case study in starting residential design from renewable, recyclable, low-embodied-energy materials such as hemp, cork, and cross-laminated timber, and in working through the cost, sourcing, installer, and client hurdles of materials not yet mainstream.
Beyond Residential: Designing Non-residential Buildings to Passive House Standards
Enrico Bonilauri of Emu Passive on non-residential Passive House in the Northeast's mixed climate: key metrics, thermal bridges, insulation, glazing, internal heat gains, ERVs, and airtightness, with case studies from schools to data centers and links to regional utility programs.
Dude, Where’s My Carbon? The Hidden Impact of Building Materials – Analyzing embodied carbon in Passive House design
What embodied carbon is, how it adds to a building's life-cycle emissions, and how to balance Passive House's low operational energy with low-carbon materials, drawing on CCNY master's thesis research and Emu Passive's certified projects.
Window to the Future: Mexico’s First Certified Passive House Component
Dr. Goerdt Abel of Aventa Windows and Edward Lowes of the Passive House Institute on the first Mexican-designed and manufactured Passive House window: its technical design, its certification, and what regional manufacturing means for Passive House in Mexico and the US.
The Standard on Fifth: Multi-Family Passive House
Rebecca Griffith and Jason Andrews of Rothschild Doyno Collaborative on The Standard on Fifth, a multifamily Passive House under construction in Pittsburgh, and how its design, development, and funding meet the region's need for high-performance affordable housing.
