"A gross mischaracterization of Passive House"?

[Martin Holladay]

The fur is flying. One of the GreenBuildingAdvisor Web pages is hosting an interesting debate on whether Boston builder Simon Hare has used the Passive House name in vain. Read about it here:
http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ncy-boston

[ericstorm]

I can see this how Hare came to the position he did. While the concept of PH is perhaps broadly apealing, applying PH (PHPP and all) is, I agree, more appealing to geeks than laymen. I have heard this reaction from more than a few people. I think this will be one of the reactions to PH that will need to be responded to well if it wants to avoid a poor beginning int he U.S.

If someone decides that they don't want PH certification and uses the prinicples, rules of thimb, and local examples as templates for their own work, then there's not much to be done. Hare didn't claim to be building a PH, only using the prrcepts and building to the PH standard. So did he use the name in vain? No. Did he challenge PH? You betchya!

PHIUS is dealing with the increadible challenge of a very fast growing organization as recognition of PH spreads across the U.S. It is also dealing with the ripple effects of the German-centric beginnings. I know Katrin and Mike are doing their best to keep up with the pressures. I hope they are getting solid organizational development and strategic planning advice and help. (K&M, let me know if you need more help on that front.)

Eric Storm
Portland

[DMcEvers]

Passive House is where we need to be in the US, we also need climate change legislation and pronto. The timing of PHIUS could not be better, the certification is achievable but all details must be correctly carried out, as it should be.


Doug

[Mark Siddall]

* I hope he got the thermal bridging issue sorted out - if he just used PH rules of thumb then up to 50% of the fabric heat losses could be through these weak points alone - without an audit (or a nerdy level of interest) this could remain unspotted.
* Is he considering airtightness just a conceptual thing also, or is he testing? Not pressure testing is not an option for even a superinsulated home - how else can you try to even begin to validate the build quality? Infiltration could easily account for over 50% of the real heat losses.
* What's the orientation like? That could throw everything out by say 7 kWh/m2.yr

At best he has used "PassivHaus components" - this strategy in retrofits can achieve about 35 kWh/m2.yr even when using PHPP to inform the design. So expect a good margin of error for seat of the pants rule-of-thumb stuff and you're up at 45 kWh/m2.yr or more. This does not sound very respectable...

Would be interesting to do a PHPP autopsy on it - I wonder if he'd make that public regardless of the result? (I suspect it will only see the light of day if the result was glowing... which is reasonably unlikely.)

Mark

[girwin]

Actually, Hare DID claim to be building to PH standard, until corrected by PHIUS, and he HAS claimed an airtightness of 0.6 ACH50 (windows were covered over with plastic.) The PHIUS folks have been quite polite given the circumstances, IM(H)O.

I will volunteer to do a "PHPP autopsy," as Mark describes, if, and only if, Martin will publish the results in a follow up article. Basically, I will design a same size building to PH standards and explain what is required in the way of details. What say you?

[Martin Holladay]

Girwin,
Sounds great. I'd be happy to publish your results. Let the information flow.
Martin Holladay, GreenBuildingAdvisor