Reid Rowland: Energy Star to Passive

Reid Rowland of World Class Supply stopped by Construction Tech Tuesday last week to talk about the technical, the technique, and the technology of taking a project from Energy Star to Passive House. While a lot of people may have tuned in to the program assuming that they’d be watching a presentation on how a team took an existing, Energy Star design and gave it a Passive House makeover, the truth was far more exciting.

In this episode, the Construction Tech hivemind actually participated in an impromptu brainstorm about what high-performance upgrades could be made to a design model to make it a Passive House. The model in question is known as the Wesley House, and the National Council on Agricultural Life & Labor Research Fund Inc. (NCALL), a nonprofit organized in the state of Delaware that creates homes for low-income families, has created several iterations of it that have met Energy Star standards. When the state approached them to see if they could up their game and build it to Passive House standards, Rowland was brought in to consult on ways to increase efficiency without significant cost increases or changes to the basic design of the model. Energize Delaware, a state agency tasked with promoting residents and businesses to make energy efficiency upgrades to their buildings, then asked Rowland to calculate the difference between the standard, Energy Star models and the Passive House upgrade. The agency will then provide financing for the difference.

Enter the Construction Tech hivemind.

To listen in and hear some of the solutions that emerged, check out the link above.