Phius REVIVE 2024 Open for Comment

Phius has debuted its new and improved retrofit standard, Phius REVIVE 2024, and is soliciting public comments on the standard until March 31st. The completely re-worked REVIVE 2024 was designed to facilitate the scaling up of passive retrofits, aiming for zero operational carbon emissions while minimizing embodied carbon emissions. Given that the standard’s redesign has been a very thoughtful, multiyear effort, summing it up would be impossible, but certainly improving the resilience of our buildings and our planet would be core principles.

Partly in response to the increasing prevalence of extreme weather events and the deepening of the climate crisis, the standard was developed with the minimum requirement of guiding the transformation of existing buildings into healthy, resilient ones in which the occupants can safely shelter for at least a week during both extreme cold or extreme heat events. Other health prerequisites include resolving critical indoor air quality issues, such as mold, radon, lead, or poor ventilation.

For homeowners and developers, working with this standard grants access to the use of a software tool developed by Phius that can run parametric studies to identify a range of specific solution packages that all meet the required resilience metrics at the lowest life-cycle costs. The ADORB life-cycle cost calculator, which was developed in tandem with the standard, weighs the embodied carbon cost of retrofit measures against the building’s annual carbon emissions from relying on the electric grid. The resulting solution packages can help address the chronic retrofit question of how deep to go with building-level upgrades and what value these investments will achieve.

Consistent with its other standards, REVIVE 2024 includes third-party quality assurance that in this case is based on ASHRAE commissioning guidelines. The intent of this commissioning process is to ensure that that the retrofit work delivers benefits that are sustained over time.

To fill out this barebones description of REVIVE 2024, peruse Phius REVIVE 2024 Retrofit Standard for Buildings v0.8 or listen to the Passive House Accelerator podcast episode with James Ortega, certification program director, and Haley Kalvin-Gold, project certifier. For more background on the research leading to the development of REVIVE 2024, read Passive Building, Thermal Resilience, and Retrofits.

Be sure to register for RB ’24 to hear Phius Associate Director Lisa White and learn more about a range of Phius projects.