Passive House Weekly January 23rd, 2022

January 23rd, 2023

Please read on for a selection of Passive House happenings, articles, interviews, and developments. The featured project above is Manhattan’s First Certified Passive House, PHI and LEED for Home Platinum Certified.

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

1. PHA Week in Preview

WED: The Designer's Roadmap to High Performance HVAC

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New Time! 9am Vancouver / 12 noon New York /  5pm London / 6pm Darmstadt

Barry Price and Cramer Silkworth kick off the first Construction Tech edition of 2023 and will join us to talk through lessons learned while designing high-performance HVAC systems, focusing on the spatial management of components, how clients interface, and the related challenges. Their presentation will include tips on PH principles for placement of mechanical rooms, using BIM modeling of HVAC as a planning tool, the importance of walk throughs during pre- and post-construction, advanced pre-construction coordination, real world dimensions for components of HVAC systems...and more! Get the Zoom link

THUR: Building Performance Interactive

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The first episode of season two explores a popular topic, "Offsite Construction Meets Growing Demand For Better Buildings". This session features a live, interactive focus on modern methods of construction and how offsite construction techniques not only meet current building standards, but demonstrates how genuine technological innovation can help us on the path to net zero. Register now

NOW LIVE: Episode 123 of the Passive House Podcast

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Passive House Podcast guest cohosts Mary James and Ilka Cassidy interview Tessa Bradley and Roussa Cassel, co-owners and principals of Artisans Group in Olympia, Washington. The interview delves into women's leadership in architecture, Artisans Group's Passive House practice, the firm's exciting new project with Habitat for Humanity, and Tessa's and Roussa's distinct paths to their current collaborative leadership of the firm. Listen here

THIS WEEK: Events in the Passive House Community

Passive House Accelerator
The Designer's Roadmap to High Performance HVAC (Jan 25)
Offsite Construction Meets Growing Demand For Better Buildings (Jan 26)

Emu Passive
Passive House Builder Boot Camp in Green Island, NY (Jan 23)

ZEBx
Decarb Lunch: Heat Pumps for Step 5 Homes in Northern BC (Jan 27)

#BSFriday
Huber Engineered Woods (Jan 27)


Do you have a recent Passive House and/or high performance project that demonstrates PH principles, electrification, low embodied carbon and high performance construction? Submit here to be featured in a future edition of Passive House Weekly, Podcast or LIVE! program.

Welcoming Our Newest Sponsor!

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Intelligent Membranes is the latest company to become a Champion Sponsor of the Passive House Accelerator. Based in United Kingdom but with distribution arms throughout the United States and Canada, Intelligent Membranes has garnered an industrywide reputation for producing top flight vapor control solutions and VOC-free products that can be applied using brush, roller, or spray. Within the Passive House community, their most well-known product is Passive Purple intelligent airtight liquid vapor control membrane, the first vapor control membrane to receive Passive House Institute component certification. Passive Purple can be used in commercial, single-family, or retrofit projects and can be applied to most substrates used within the industry to achieve an ACH50 as low as 0.03. Learn More!

2. Featured Article of the Week

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First Passive House Brings Challenges—and Benefits

Lloyd Minick, operations manager at Fortunate Foundations, which is based in Austin, Texas, is used to a busy workload and having to juggle priorities. Fortunate Foundations is a vertically integrated, green home building and real estate development firm with multiple concurrent projects. “We have 31 homes under construction currently,” he notes succinctly. Continue reading

3. 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!

4. New Video

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Sebastian Moreno-Vacca, founding member of A2M, leads the firm’s future-proof vision, aesthetics, and drive to offer regenerative design for a decarbonized future. He joined Project Showcase to share his process and experience for all kinds of renovations to Passive House and CO2 Neutral, including two inspiring large-scale retrofit examples.

5. Upcoming Passive House Happenings

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Many Passive House design principles are invisible and they are designed into the fabric of the building itself, such as a high level of airtightness. With this in mind, Coltraco Ultrasonics has developed Portascanner® Airtight, the world’s first micro air-leak detector, which uses ultrasound only. Register now

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Applications for Round 3 of NYSERDA's Buildings of Excellence program are due on September 29, 2023! The $40 million program aims to advance resilient, beautiful & replicable buildings for all New Yorkers. Learn More

Passive House Accelerator
The Designer's Roadmap to High Performance HVAC (Jan 25)
Building Performance Interactive, Season Two, Episode One (Jan 26)
Achieving Passive House Levels of Airtightness with the Portascanner® AIRTIGHT (Jan 31)
10 Steps to Designing Your First Passive House: Tips and Tricks From an Architect (Feb 1)

#BSFriday
Huber Engineered Woods (Jan 27)

International Passive House Conference
Early Bird Ticket Rate (Now until Jan 23)

Emu Passive
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
Call For Papers (Jan 31)
Join the California Zoning Holiday (Feb 1)

Passive House School
Certified Passive House Designer Course (Feb 1)

Peel Passive
Upcoming: Certified Passive House Designer Course (Feb 14)

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

Exxon’s Predictions About the Climate Crisis May Have Increased Its Legal Peril (The Guardian)
Your Gas Stove May Be Killing You. How Much Should You Worry? (New York Times)
Converting Your Gas to an Electric Induction Stove? Here Are Some Tips and Tricks (ABC)
Playing Zeus, Scientists Use a Laser Beam to Control Lightning Bolts (Science)
Why U.S. Leaders Are Taking Note of Virginia’s Surprise BRT Success (Streetsblog)
One of Argentina’s First Passive Houses Stands Tall Above Rising Tides (Dwell)
New York State Joins the YIMBY Fray (City Lab)
Why State and Local Relationships Matter to National Prosperity (Brookings Institute)
AIA New York Announces Winners of 2023 Design Awards (The Architect’s Newspaper)
Housing Market Update: Market Impasse with Continued Buyer Hesitation (Builder Online)

Categories: News