Conference Overview

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With energy efficiency, health, comfort and affordability emerging as watchwords in the new construction economy, building professionals around the US are going back to school. Moving beyond “guess-timation” and prescriptive rules of thumb, many are now studying the science of Passive House construction; learning its technical specifics, applying its innovations, calculating its energy balances, analyzing its economics, and designing and implementing its conclusions. At the end of 2008, there were 15 Certified Passive House Consultants in the US; by the end of 2009 there will be over 200. Projects are being launched around the country, and a budding community of Passive House professionals, instructors, students, and homeowners is now in motion. This October 16-17, our 4th Annual North American Passive House Conference will be held on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

We’re excited to be back home for this year’s conference. Our second conference was held in Urbana in 2007 with the theme “The Path of High-Performance: From the 70’s Until Now.” Those familiar with that conference already know that the U of I was home to the Small Homes Council (today known as the Building Research Council), which in the late 70’s was instrumental in developing and testing some of the first homes to use passive construction techniques. It was U of I’s Wayne Schick who coined the term “superinsulation” and the Lo-Cal Houses were built here. Dr. Feist and the Passive House movement have always been sure to credit and learn from such pioneers, and our conference has been no exception. Important long-time North American performance builders, designers and super-insulators, such as Saskatchewan legend Harold Orr and U of I’s Lo-Cal builder Mike McCulley, have shared their paths from their early superinsulation projects to their present work. We are honored and fortunate that Barbara Miller, Marc Rosenbaum, Bill Rose and Martin Holladay have agreed to join us this year to share integral contributions drawn from their longstanding experience and often hard-won expertise.

(One disappointing, but understandable, absence from this group: Dr. Wolfgang Feist, the founder of the Passive House Standard and Director of the Passivhaus Institut (PHI) in Darmstadt, had originally agreed to be the keynote speaker and to open our 4th conference here in Urbana. He had planned on a coinciding lecture tour through the US as well. But due to the unprecedented and unforeseen success of the Passive House Standard in Europe, the decision has been made to postpone his visit to the US until 2010. Many European countries are preparing to make Passive House Standard code by the middle of the coming decade, and Wolfgang and the PHI are currently working at their full capacity to help meet this demand for Passive House implementation across the EU).

A glance at our presenter’s list will show several familiar faces, but also a lot of new ones. PH Consultants from across the US are now designing a wide array of projects in an increasingly diverse and challenging range of climates. Their experiences, impressions, problems and solutions will also be crucial, as we develop our command of Passive House principals and our abilities to apply them here in the U.S.

We’ll be offering participants three different tracks this year. The first one is dedicated to newcomers and home owners as an introduction to Passive House principles. Welcome. The second track will focus on more general design aspects such as climate-specific design requirements, air-tightness systems, PH materials and mechanical components. The third is aiming at the more advanced Passive House professional, examining such topics as packaged mechanical systems designs, larger building systems and the interior insulation of brick buildings.

An exhibit of Passive House-relevant, high-performance materials and products will round out this year’s program. Also, optionally available to participants, will be a Friday evening dinner and a Sunday tour of projects built in Urbana. Come join Passive House on campus!

The Stanton House, 2009

        source: Keihly Moore

Back to School!

source: UIUC Library archives

source: GSIS