Deep energy retrofits are key to decarbonizing our building stock. They also allow us to salvage building materials, prolonging their life cycles and keeping them from the landfill. Examples below include single-family homes, multifamily buildings, and even a hotel in Spain. We'll be taking a few weeks off from programing for the holidays, but we'll be back in January with more great articles and videos.
See you in 2024!
Videos
2/22/23
Six & Kane: First EnerPhit Plus Commercial Building in the United States
Norm Horn (New Ecology Inc) and Gary Moshier (Moshier Studio) join Construction Tech to discuss Six&Kane, the first EnerPHit Plus Certified Commercial Building in the United States.
Video, Commercial, Passive House Accelerator Live, Construction Tech Tuesday
3/22/23
Industrial Retrofits: Moving from Concept to Construction
We were joined by four retrofit experts who share their collective experience creating solutions to upgrade existing buildings and scale for greater production in the future.
Video, Retrofit, PH Summit or Roundtable
4/28/23
Touring an Architect's Eco-Friendly Brooklyn NYC Townhouse | Passive Pads
Passive Pads explores Passive House through homeowners' eyes. This week, we visit NYC architect Michael Ingui, founder of Passive House Accelerator, and his wife, Dayan Ingui, who co-designed their home.
Video, Retrofit, Reimagine Buildings Video
5/18/23
BPI Episode 3: Retrofitting and Remodelling a Timber Frame House to EnerPHit Standard
The third episode of BPI provides lessons and thoughts on DIY deep retrofit and radical remodelling for space and amenity.
Video, Retrofit, Single Family, Building Performance Interactive
6/2/23
INSIDE a DIY Deep Energy Retrofit (a Passive House EnerPHit)
Explore Es Tresidder’s DIY Passive House retrofit in Scotland’s Western Highlands—perfect for those dreaming of or tackling their own deep energy retrofit.
Video, Retrofit, Single Family, Reimagine Buildings Video
6/9/23
Iconic Retrofits Bring Passive House to Brooklyn, NYC | Massive Passive
The first Massive Passive episode explores Bushwick’s Casa Pasiva retrofit, revitalizing affordable housing with stunning new facades.
Video, Retrofit, Affordable Housing, Reimagine Buildings Video
6/21/23
Hot Climate, Cool Solutions: Inside Seville's Passive House Hotel
Juan Manuel Castaño Salvador of Castaño & Asociados Passivhaus discusses the process of building the first Passive House certified hotel in Seville's historic center.
Video, Hot Humid Climates, Passive House Accelerator Live
6/23/23
How A Passive House Retrofit Protected Couple’s Home From Fire
Finished just two months before the devastating Marshall Fire in Colorado, Mark Attard's Passive House retrofit came just in time.
Video, Resilience, Retrofit, Reimagine Buildings Video
7/12/23
High Energy Performance With Low Carbon Building Materials
Paul Shepski of Vancouver, BC based Geography Contracting discusses high energy performance and low carbon materials.
Video, Embodied Carbon, Envelope and Structure, Passive House Accelerator Live
10/18/23
NYC Holistic Decarbonization: The Role of Retrofit
Ana Leopold, Vera A. Voropaeva and Paul Castrucci of Paul Castrucci Architects join the Accelerator to review their approach to replicable retrofit pathways.
Video, Retrofit, Passive House Accelerator Live
12/13/23
Layering Thermal Control into an Existing Building
Nakita Reed shares insights into the retrofit of the Compound Rowhouse project in Baltimore, which involves the transformation of four dilapidated row homes into two cutting-edge communal residential units.
Video, Retrofit, Passive House Accelerator Live
Articles
3/17/23
Real-World Benefits of a Passive House Retrofit
Mark Attard of Hammerwell, Inc discusses the benefits of retrofitting homes to Passive House standards in regions that are seeing more fires, more smoke damage to homes, and more days with poor air quality.
Building Science, Durability, Health & IAQ
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3/31/23
Going Solo in a Montana EnerPHit
David Karon of Karon Custom Built is performing an EnerPHit retrofit of his home in Livingston, and he's playing the roles of general contractor, architect, engineer, builder, investor, and occupant all at the same time.
Retrofit, Single Family
4/21/23
Applying EnerPHit Lessons to Social Housing in Mexico
A pilot project in Mexico aims to boost home resilience to extreme heat by developing energy retrofits, assessing feasibility, and finding the best large-scale mix of efficiency and renewable energy solutions.
Hot Humid Climates
5/25/23
Metro Vancouver Housing Retrofits
Metro Vancouver Housing has issued RFPs for two buildings that participated in the Reframed Lab: Crown Manor in Coquitlam and Le Chateau Place in New Westminster.
News
7/19/23
Response to the NESEA BE Boston 2023 Wednesday Keynote, “Why we Stopped Doing Deep Energy Retrofits”
"In short Rachel and Brendan were applying a cost-benefit analysis for a micro-economic context to make a statement about our industry’s strategic responses to a crisis of the global commons known as the atmosphere."
Retrofit
8/4/23
Efficient Housing—Old and New: Densification Via New Construction and Retrofit
The Beacon stands to become a replicable model for fully electrified, deeply efficient, healthy, decarbonized, resilient, and Passive House construction on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Multifamily, Retrofit
9/8/23
Mainstreaming Clean Energy on Main Street USA
A Gilded Age bank building goes green with a plan that respects what’s best for an Upstate New York community’s climate, culture, and economy.
Retrofit
9/15/23
A Deep Energy Retrofit: Our Experiment + Experience
Carri Beer—owner of CommONEcology Radical Architecture + Design—details the experience of retrofitting her home, which she describes as "an architect’s dream and a Passive House consultant’s worst nightmare."
Retrofit, Single Family
10/20/23
Buildings UP Award Goes to passivhausMAINE
passivhausMAINE received a big boost for its retrofitMAINE initiative last week from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Buildings Upgrade Prize (Buildings UP) to create a more comprehensive, local retrofit training program.
News
12/1/23
Early Design Support Helps Two MAP Projects Explore Novel Solutions
NYSERDA's Buildings of Excellence Early Design Support program has given Magnusson Architecture and Planning the opportunity to study novel design solutions for projects in Northern Manhattan and the Bronx.
News, Multifamily
12/8/23
Passive Resilience Gets Valued
A report commissioned by the U.S. DOE’s Building Technologies Office provides a better understanding of the value of energy efficiency and passive building methodologies.
Resilience