The Passive House is the world's leading standard in energy efficient construction.
Energy saved in heating can be up to 85% compared to conventional building standards. These savings are reached without compromising comfort, but rather increasing it. The Passive House is economically viable through affordable construction costs with significant reductions in energy needs and carbon emissions.

In summary, Passive House is the set of performance standards, a software tool for energy modelling, and specific construction strategies. The Passive House standard is simple but not easy to achieve. Meticulous calculations and construction detailing are required to insure the high performance result.

Passive House Principles
The primary objective is to minimize heat loss by optimizing the thermal performance of the building envelope. This is accomplished with:

1. Super-insulation
2. Airtightness
3. High performance windows
4. Incorporating very high efficiency heat recovery ventilation
5. Minimizing thermal bridges

The energy efficient envelope maintains the heat from passive sources, primarily solar, but also waste heat generated in the building from lights, appliances and the occupants. Building shape, site orientation, and thermal mass are also important design principles.

Passive House is Cost Effective
The key to the cost effectiveness of Passive House is increasing the building performance to the point where the conventional heating system can be eliminated from the building. The costs and space saved by reaching this objective are used to offset the increased costs of the superior building components.

Performance Characteristics

1. Airtight building shell <= 0.6 ACH @ 50 pascal pressure, measured by blower-door test.
2. Annual heat requirement <= 15 kWh/m2/year
3. Primary Energy <= 120 kWh/m2/year

Different from Passive Solar Concept
This concept is quite different from the passive solar house concept, which relies entirely on the sun to provide solar heat gain to the home. A Passive House is based on technology that does not primarily depend on the utilization of solar energy. Energy performance of the building envelope constitutes the basis of a Passive House. Even though the orientation of the buildings towards south produces energy benefits, experiences in Passive Houses in central Europe prove that the concept is functional in building sites facing north. It can be beneficial to install solar hot water systems in a Passive House. Domestic hot water is typically the biggest energy requirement in a home after space heating and cooling. Solar hot water may effectively provide space heating if required.

The Key Benefits of the Passive House in Canada

• Cut energy costs by 85% and reduce CO2 emission by 65%.
• Affordable to construct and maintain.
• There are no limits for the design and architecture
• Less technical systems are used making it simple for the user to operate.
• Well-insulated building provides effective sound insulation and protection from outside noise.
• With no drafts the house provides superior indoor climate comfort
• Independent third party certification insures quality of the construction and future value of the building.