Passive House is a voluntary international building standard developed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), located in Darmstadt, Germany. An iterative version is promoted by the Passive House Institute US. The International Passive House Standard is comprised of several strict performance requirements for new building construction including:

  1. air sealing standards [.6ACH50]

  2. heating/cooling energy restrictions [4.75kbtu/sf/yr]

  3. total energy [38kbtu/sf/yr]

For the renovation of existing buildings, there are similar, slightly more lenient performance standard.   The resulting performance produces an extreme reduction (80+%) in heating and cooling energy usage and primary energy usage compared to homes built to conventional building code. Passive House can be used for any building type: large, small, commercial, residential. Passive House is more easily achievable at no increased expense in larger buildings such as multi-family residential construction. Having an educated, motivated and experienced design/construction team is the key to a successful project.

Globally there are numbers of institutions and organisations which are tackling various aspects of building science and contribute to lowering our energy needs and carbon emissions. phME supports all contributions to the collective advancement of building science and energy/carbon reduction in our built environment.