Before Building a Custom Home: Passive Home Principles
Whether you’re planning a new build or an extensive renovation in Denver, a passive house is probably a strategy that you might have heard about.
The key to why passive homes have gained attention lately is that it is an approach that makes your home so efficient, if operated properly, the house is able to maintain a comfortable temperature.
As my mechanical design professor used to say, "The most efficient home is one where the HVAC system doesn’t have to run!"
5 Principles of Passive Homes
- Super-Insulation: Thick, continuous insulation keeps the heat in during winter and out during summer.
- Airtight Construction: An airtight seal prevents energy from leaking out through cracks and gaps.
- High-Performance Windows: Energy-certified windows act as transparent insulation, allowing the sun to heat your home while reducing temperature escape from the conditioned space.
- Thermal Bridge-Free Details: Focus is on eliminating continuous materials that stretch from the inside to the outside of a wall. This prevents heat loss (like steel beams or concrete slabs that run from the inside to the outside), preventing cold spots and mold from condensation.
- Mechanical Ventilation: The lungs of the house. Providing a constant stream of fresh, filtered air while recovering a majority of the heat from the air it exhausts.
Major Benefits
- Major Reduction in heating and cooling energy
- Superior Air Quality
- Silence from outside noise
Downsides of Building a Passive House
The major downside for building a passive house is the cost. The cost of specialized materials (triple-glazed windows, heat recovery systems) and the precision labor required.
Another difficulty in building a passive house in Colorado is finding the right team. There aren’t many people who are well-versed in passive standards or are diligent enough to build in a quality manner necessary for passive homes.
Building a House using Passive Principles
Passive house standards create a great framework for building. Even if there is not the budget to build a house that would pass certification, using the principles will make a major difference in the quality of the interior feel and the longevity of the house.
If you have a desire to build a sustainable house, reach out to me at [email protected] and we can discuss the different options that can meet your budget. There are many amazing features that passive house standards can be leveraged in more standard construction.
