18th International Passive House Conference 2013

Session XI: North America

Saturday, 26 April 2014

10:30	Adam Cohen \| Built comparison of a Passive House and a standard American dormitory – a twin study The opportunity to study 2 commercial buildings of similar design, size, construction methods and usage pattern is a rare and golden one. At Emory and Henry College in Virginia 2 dormitories, 1 of standard construction and 1 of Passivhaus construction are complete and ready for side by side comparison.
10:55	Timothy McDonald \| Strategies for affordable, modular and multifamily PH housing in the USA The Belfield Townhomes project, the first Certified Passive House project in Pennsylvania, is subsidized, “social” housing in the City of Philadelphia. The broader goal of the project was to demonstrate that Passive House, and therefore Net-Zero-Energy-Capable, buildings can and should be, at virtually no cost premium, standard in the United States.
11:20	Adam Cohen \| Design & construction of the LDS Dental Clinic Summary to be announced soon.
11:45	Jörg Rügemer \| Maximizing the Passive House at market rate − Utah’s most energy-efficient and cost-effective house This paper evaluates the Passive House strategy when set in context to a given budget. Using average market rate costs for a comparable code standard building, the author explored how much energy-efficiency can be achieved in a single-family home without becoming substantially more expensive.
12:10	Malcolm Isaacs \| Passive House economics: A simplified North American approach This four-project study suggests a simplified approach to improve marketing of the Passive House Standard in Canada. It looks at total monthly cost of building ownership from the first month as the prime criterion of economic viability, not NPV, simple payback, total added cost or % added cost.
12:35	Matthew O’Malia \| Design/ Build/ Refine/ Repeat: A systems approach for Passive House construction in North America This presentation explores Passive House design and construction in the cold climate of the Northeastern United States and the development of a regional, wood framed, lightweight construction system that meets PH requirements. Monitored data and lessons learned will be discussed.