11 Comments

1. 
   Interested Onlooker | Mar 09, 2010 10:09am | #1

   Either the two people in the
   Either the two people in the photograph are very, very small or this is not a tiny building...

2. GBA Editor
   Martin Holladay | Mar 09, 2010 10:12am | #2

   It's 1,200 square feet
   Interested,
   You have a good point. It's 1,200 square feet — not as large as the typical new home, but not really "tiny." In response to your comment, I'll change the wording of the caption.

3. 
   mike | Mar 11, 2010 01:33am | #3

   Smith house
   1200 sf for a 2-br house in the States is fairly minuscule.

   The building appears larger than it is because the south-facing living room is a double-height space (soaking up rays and extending light into the depths of the house).

4. 
   Doug McEvers | Mar 11, 2010 10:09am | #4

   Passive House
   I was in this house on the 2007 PH tour on a cool but sunny November day, it was very comfortable and got a bit warm with 30 or 40 people inside ( lots of temporary internal gain). The house feels larger than it is with the 2 story south facing living area, this home treads lightly.

5. 
   Ed Welch | Mar 11, 2010 02:43pm | #5

   Extremely simple design...
   Katrin's house is also a very simple design (for economic reasons) with very few windows on the colder sides, north and east. I don't think this home represents the strengths of the Passive Haus Concept. But if you read her book, Passive Houses in the US, you will get a better representation of more complex designs. I look forward to their next book when we will see more projects completed
   , homes that look like all the homes we see every day.

6. 
   Jim Merrithew, SE Ontario, 6A | Jan 13, 2011 10:36am | #6

   Daniel,
   Thank you for
   Daniel,
   Thank you for compiling the list of links. There are several blogs and discussions I had not encountered yet. This list will simplify the search for information.

7. 
   Daniel Morrison | Jan 19, 2011 02:39pm | #7

   Just doin' my Job, Jim
   Glad you like it.

   BTW, Martin doubled the number of links on this page recently.

   Dan

8. 
   Kevin Dickson P.E., MSME | Jan 20, 2011 12:02am | #8

   Great Summary, BUT
   The PassivHaus (PH) standard is a great guideline and is roughly in the top three in popularity.

   But here's a big caveat for especially for homebuilding novices ready to drink the PH Kool-Aid: be careful, some of the specifications are overkill for your home and your climate. By overkill, I mean they cost you more than they are worth.

   Robert Riversong doesn't pull any punches in his disdain for PH. He can be brutally rude & honest, but he's still highly regarded on these forums:

   "the PH standards are arbitrary and excessive and are not cost-effective to meet in an affordable home. They take a couple of good ideas (air tightness and superinsulation) to a ridiculous extreme. Extremism is never a solution, but merely creates new problems."

   I'm more diplomatic: I say that if PH has caught your fancy, go for it, but be ready to jettison at least a few of its hard-to-meet requirements. If you don't know which ones they are for your project, you need to hire a good energy rater who can explain it to you. You may not even get your "PH certification" but you've saved money and headaches.

   Not getting certification is no big deal, there isn't a shred of evidence that it would add to the resale value of your project.

   I'm still pushing the concept of an EPA energy rating for homes that is in dollars per year. PH and LEED and Energy Star and HERS are too complicated for the average consumer. "This house will use 50% less energy than if the home were built to the minimum code that was in effect in 2006" WHAT?!? or "This house is PassivHaus certified because it uses less than 15kwh/m2/yr" HUH??!

9. 
   user-716970 | Dec 30, 2011 11:53am | #9

   Another article
   I would like to see an article discussing why so many PH designs seem to have no regard for summer shading of south facing glazing. The home pictured at the beginning of this blog is a prime example of what I am questioning...

10. 
    mikeolder | Jan 20, 2020 01:58pm | #10

    I'm pretty sure Martin's opinion about PH heat gain with big expensive windows is that they doesn't pay for themselves in most area's. Windows have much less R value, and most of the time the sun isn't shinning into the house..

1. GBA Editor
   Martin Holladay | Jan 20, 2020 02:32pm | #11

   Garth and Mike,
   For more information on this topic, see "Study Shows That Expensive Windows Yield Meager Energy Returns."