Ventilation flow rate plays a critical role in shaping energy use, comfort, and overall building performance in Passive House projects. This 201-level session goes beyond the basics to examine how design choices around air volume, equipment sizing, and distribution affect both performance and efficiency.
Using four common typologies—small and large single-family homes and decentralized and centralized multifamily buildings—this session will make visible the connections between ventilation rates, system layout, and resulting energy impacts. Attendees will come away with a deeper understanding of the underlying principles, plus practical guidance for applying these insights in their own projects.
What You'll Learn:
Compare required and recommended ventilation rates commonly used in passive buildings.
Explain how changes in airflow affect recovery efficiency, fan power, and heating/cooling demands and loads.
Understand the criteria that guide equipment sizing and recognize how ERV location and distribution influence internal gains and duct losses.
Interpret quantitative results from four building typologies to identify patterns, practical ranges, and implications for project decisions.
Ryan Abendroth is a Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC) and Co-Founder of Build Zero Consulting. With over 15 years of experience in low- and zero-energy design, Ryan has helped shape the Passive House movement in the U.S.—his graduate research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign informed the PHIUS+2015 Standard and the Building America Study behind it.
A former certification manager at the Passive House Institute US (Phius) and founding member of its Technical Committee, Ryan has trained hundreds of professionals through the CPHC curriculum. He now teaches architecture and zero-energy design at Washington University in St. Louis and has guided projects across multiple climates, including the first Phius Certified buildings in Kansas, Indiana, Missouri, and New Mexico.
This free presentation will take place on Wednesday, November 12th at 9am PT / 12pm ET and will be followed by a lively Q+A session. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from an industry leader and engage with the PHA community. See you there!