stuartrue

I live in a certified Passive House in Salem, Oregon. When we were building our house, there was a lot of excitement about green building and PH in particular. There was a feeling that PH was on the verge of a breakthrough, and while plenty are still being built, it hasn't exploded like I hoped it would.

What do you see are the trends for the green building movement? Is it ramping up quickly? What do you think is the future of the Passive House standard in particular?

Was your place built by Hammer and Hand?

Our house was built by the awesome Bilyeu Homes. Blake Bilyeu is the Certified Passive House Consultant. They were absolutely fantastic.

Businesses and people are doing it for the financial incentives more than anything. It seems like a fairly logical path. I think the increase in comfort and other aspects are being undervalued though.

I agree on both counts, and perhaps the greater point is that there needs to be an incentive beyond environmentalism before most people will get on board, unfortunately. It's absolutely great to lower our carbon footprint and resource usage, but it's a much harder sell if it is uncomfortable and expensive. That's where good planning comes in - impact, comfort, and savings can all be achieved.

Am I right to guess that your house never feels drafty? What's that worth? How does a contractor/bank/real estate agent quantify that?

You are right. No drafts, floors are never icey, the house is quiet, the air is fresh. It's the most comfortable house I've lived in. I don't know how one goes about putting a value on that, but it is worth a lot to me and I imagine most people.

I've heard of talk that PH would become the energy part of the requirement for LEED.

I would love to see more widespread incorporation of the PH standard into certifications or tax incentive programs. There already exist incentives for solar, which is great. Conservation (insulation, solar gain, ERVs, etc) is cheaper than generation (e.g., solar), so I'd like to see it prioritized.

EDIT: I want to hear more about your house.

My wife and I maintained a blog during the planning, construction, and for some time after move-in. It's got tons of details if you're interested. We were the first Passive House on the U.S. West Coast (Vancouver, B.C. built one over the Winter Olympics there).

It's got double studded walls with roughly 10.5 inches of dense-packed cellulose with 2 inches of rigid EPS on the outside (R-45 in the walls, R-50 in the floor, R-95 in the roof), lots of triple-glazed south-facing glass (U-value 0.14), a whole-house ERV, and 5-point compression sealed doors. It's 1885 square feet (traditional method), and 1567 square feet of conditioned space. It has an ACH50 of 0.20. It even has an airtight dog door.