Phius unveiled details of the REVIVE 2024 retrofit standard earlier this week at an hour-long webinar that described the goals and software programs associated with the new standard. Like all Passive House standards, undergoing the process of Phius REVIVE 2024 certification means quality assurance in addition to reducing operational emissions. REVIVE is the first standard created by Phius that is intended explicitly for retrofits and, as noted by Phius Chief Building Scientist & Chair of the Phius Technical Committee Graham Wright, it is a “retrofit standard for all kinds of existing buildings.”
As Wright described during Tuesday's event, the primary outcome goals are resilience, health, and decarbonization.
Resilience means survivability; limited but continuous access to electrical systems; and protection from danger due to high winds, seismic activity, flooding, and other natural hazards. More specifically, it means being able to meet the following criteria during simulated seven-day outages: maintaining critical electrical loads (via onsite batteries or renewables), keeping the entire building habitable, and avoiding dangerous interior temperatures. In this context, “dangerous interior temperatures” is defined as no hours below 35°F and limited degree-hours below 54°F (≤ 216 SET-hours) during the winter. In summer, it means zero “deadly days” and zero hours of heat index “danger” in summer.
Health means improvements in general indoor air quality due to the reduction of particulates, as well as the mitigation of mold, dust, allergens, and a host of other airborne hazards like asbestos or volatile organic compounds. As shown in the screenshot from the event below, this includes infectious aerosols.
