Passive House Weekly January 2, 2022

January 2nd, 2022

Happy New Year! We look forward to growing a larger community of the Passive House curious—and ultimately the Passive House committed—in the year ahead. Cheers to an incredible 2023!

Please read on for a selection of Passive House happenings, articles, interviews, and developments. The featured project above is Amethyst Passive House in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Do you have Passive House news that we should share in a future edition? Email us at: [email protected].

1. Passive House Year in Preview

Our LIVE! events start up again next week. Here are the details on programming in 2023!

2023 Passive House Accelerator LIVE! Schedule: New Time! 9am Vancouver / 12 noon New York /  5pm London / 6pm Darmstadt

First Wednesday: 101 Edition explores the fundamentals of Passive House and the application of basic principles, as taught by expert designers and tradespeople.
2/1: How to Design a Passive House with Michael Ingui (Note: First 101 event is in February) 

Second Wednesday: Next Gen Edition highlighting the work of the next generation of practitioners and how their contributions are shaping the future of Passive House.
1/11: Introducing the Next Gen Series, Zoe Kaufman and Carmel Pratt

Third Wednesday: Project Showcase Edition featuring fast, factual, and fun presentations about Passive House projects.
1/18: Multifamily Retrofits, Sebastian Moreno-Vacca

Fourth Wednesday: Construction Tech Edition diving into the technical, the technique, and the technology of Passive House construction practice.
1/25: Lessons Learned: High Performance HVAC Systems, Barry Price and Cramer Silkworth

In case you missed our most recent Construction Tech event, we announced two new programs for 2023, our 101 Edition and our Next Gen Edition, both of which have been designed to expand the PH community and create an interactive forum for newer practitioners who are interested and curious about Passive House. 

We also announced that after much consideration and feedback from you, our usual Wednesday programming in 2023 will be moving to an earlier time slot, 9am Vancouver / 12 noon New York /  5pm London / 6pm Darmstadt. Our hope is that this shift will allow more of our North American community to tune in and join us during the workday now that we’re in (mostly?) post-Covid times. And hopefully, a few more viewers can join us from across the pond. To our loyal community down under, we have something in the works to accommodate the time change and hope you can join us on YouTube for now.

As always, Passive House Accelerator LIVE! is free and open to all comers, regardless of experience level, preferred certification type, profession, or geography. It’s a (virtual) place for the Passive House curious and the Passive House expert to come together and share lessons learned and best practices. An interactive Q+A session will continue to follow all of our LIVE! presentations.

See you next Wednesday, 1/11 for the first episode of Passive House Accelerator LIVE! Next Gen featuring Zoe Kaufman and Carmel Pratt at 9am Vancouver / 12 noon New York /  5pm London / 6pm Darmstadt

NOW LIVE: Episode 120 of the Passive House Podcast

Zack interviews Ralph DiNola, Chief Executive Officer of New Buildings Institute (NBI). The two conducted the interview in the PAE Living Building in Portland, Oregon, the site of NBI's headquarters and Oregon's first full Living Building. Ralph shares what's coming for NBI and what he sees on the horizon for building decarbonization in the United States. The importance and challenge of building retrofits loom large in the conversation. Listen here

THANK YOU to this week's Featured Sponsor

Visit Minotair

2. Featured Article of the Week

Passive House Retrofits Highlights from 2022

High-performance and Passive House retrofit projects are crucial parts of the effort to decarbonize our building stock. Here are some of the highlights from this year. We hope they encourage more retrofits in 2023! Continue reading

3. Top Podcast Episodes of 2022

Listen here

Listen here

Listen here

Listen here

Listen here

4. Upcoming Conferences

NAHB International Builders' Show (Jan 31-Feb 2)
NAHB International Builders’ Show® (IBS) is the largest home building show in North America. This three-day event brings professionals, products and home building trends together under one roof. Join Shaun St-Amour, frequent cohost of Passive House Accelerator LIVE!, at IBS.

BUILDEX Vancouver (Feb 15-16)
BUILDEX Vancouver is Western Canada’s largest forum connecting the holistic building industry. Our attendees join to interact, learn and discover the newest innovations from a market in constant transformation. Join industry professionals who are evolving traditions and accelerating innovation.

International Passive House Association Conference 2023 (March 10-11)
The 26th International Passive House Conference will be held in the state capital of Hesse in 2023. #EfficiencyNOW will be the focal theme of the event. The Conference will demonstrate how buildings that use very little energy for heating and cooling can be supplied with renewable energy reliably and at scale, a timely topic. The Conference will take place in person in Wiesbaden from March 10-11, 2023. Simultaneously, online events will be available. The Call for Papers is open until 2 September 2022. The event will be held under the auspice of the Minister of Economic Affairs of the German state of Hesse.

Northeast Sustainable Building Association, BuildingEnergy Boston (Mar 28-29, 2023)
BuildingEnergy Boston is a conference designed by and for practitioners in the fields of high-performance building and design, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. It brings more than 1,000 industry leaders and emerging professionals together to learn from and share ideas with each other. Sessions are curated by a volunteer NESEA-Member content committee to ensure that conference sessions are genuinely useful to attendees.

2023 Passive House Network Conference (Sep 28-Oct 6, 2023)
Participate online and in Denver Colorado!

5. Upcoming Passive House Happenings

Peel Passive
PeelPHC - THERM Course (Jan 12)
PeelPHC - THERM Course (Jan 13)
PeelPHC - THERM Course (Jan 19)

#BSFriday
475 on #BSfriday (Jan 13)
SASHCO booth #su10108 IBS on #BSfriday (Jan 20)
Huber Engineered Woods (Jan 27)

International Passive House Conference
Early Bird Ticket Rate (Now until Jan 15)

Phius
Window Comfort & Condensation Risk Calculator with James Ortega and Isaac Elnecave (Jan 17)

Emu Passive
Online Passive Design/Build Construction Course (Jan 12)
Passive House Builder Boot Camp in Green Island, NY (Jan 23)
Passive House Builder Boot Camp in Ft. Collins, CO (Feb 20)
Passive House Builder Boot Camp in Golden Valley, MN (Mar 20)

Passive House Network
CPHD On-Demand Trainings
Northeast Cohort: Hybrid CPHD/C Course Kick-Off (Jan 20)
Rocky Mountains Cohort: Hybrid CPHD/C Course Kick-Off (Jan 20)
Call For Papers (Jan 31)
Join the California Zoning Holiday (Feb 1)

World Sustainable Built Environment Conference
WSBE23 Call for Abstracts (Due April 5th, Conference Sep 27-29)

Does your organization have an upcoming event? Submit it here to be included in our next newsletter.

6. What We're Reading

Coverage of climate change in introductory biology textbooks, 1970-2019 (PLOS One)
Has climate change blinded us to the biodiversity crisis? (New York Times)
Why climate change is intimately tied to biodiversity (The Economist)
U.S. reaches a fusion power milestone. Will it be enough to save the planet (NPR)
EU emissions continue to fall despite return to coal (The Guardian)
No more buts: your buildings need to be climate resilient now! (The Fifth Estate)
California regulators approve plan to slash emissions 85% by 2045 (Reuters)
Government announces Passivhaus standards to be adopted in Scotland (The National)
GSA allocates $300M to first batch of Climate Act projects (Engineering News Record)
Housing starts and permits fall in November (Builder Online)