With more and more people looking to build energy efficient and eco friendly homes, a common question we get asked is if we build passive houses. Yes we do! Working with Pacific Homes, it is achievable to reach the specific building standards of energy performance needed to be considered a passive house. Through our unique building process and our exclusive Pacific SmartWall System, we can create a building design that will maintain a stable inside temperature, while saving the planet in the process.

High quality picture of a white home with a cloudy background

What is a Passive House?

The Passive House, or Passivhaus, was originally developed in Germany. They are often single family dwellings, but can also be multi-family/commercial buildings. What is most interesting about passive homes is that they have relatively few mandatory requirements. This means that they can be flexible in their design, as long as it meets certain standards of energy consumption.

The focus when creating a passive home is to create a building with minimal heat loss via conduction and air leakage. A passive house is simply an energy efficient building that requires such a small amount of heating load that it can be heated by mainly “passive” sources such as incoming sunlight, lights and appliances. The use of passive solar design principles is recommended and commonly used in these builds but is not mandatory. By contrast, a net zero home is strictly required to produce as much energy as it consumes.

According to the International Passive House Association, ‘the primary objective is to minimize heat loss by optimizing the thermal performance of the building envelope.’ To achieve this house certificate, a construction project needs to consider its air tightness, the thermal quality of its windows, its utilization of mechanical ventilation and air conditioning, and of course, its walls’ insulation and thermal bridging. Optimizing all of this can eliminate the need for an active heating or cooling system and will maintain a comfortable interior climate.

Just completed passive home package

What makes a passive house or high performance homes different?

A major focus of the Passive House movement is reduction of our individual carbon footprints. The buildings we inhabit in our daily lives contribute approximately 35% – 50% of our global green house gas emissions. This system offers a timely and affordable solution to this problem.

Wood is an attractive material for building these homes because of how it combines thermal mass with a number of performance merits. Compared with other building materials, wood provides a unique combination of water resistance, structural integrity, natural insulation and finish quality. Our high quality Pacific SmartWall outperforms conventional walls with a proven increase in thermal efficiency, providing you with energy savings. Its super-insulation, increased air tightness, and minimized thermal bridging makes the Pacific SmartWall the perfect solution for those looking to build a passive home.

Unlike other ‘green’ or low energy standards such as the BC Building Code or the BC Energy Step Code, a passive home can be built for slightly more than the cost as a conventional home. However, the reduced energy needed to run the house – up to 85% in heating – significantly reduces the home’s life time cost. The focus on energy conservation alleviates the necessity for expensive renewable energy sources such as passive solar heating. This means a Passive Home is within the budget of the majority of home builders.

Passive house in Canada

What is required to be considered a passive house?

There are a strict set of requirements a structure must reach to be considered a passive house. From the method of construction to the windows to the mechanical systems of the structure, every detail must be considered if getting certification is your goal. We have years of experience building these types of projects and will help you every step of the way.

The primary Passive House requirements are:

  • A total heating & cooling demand of less than 15 kWh/m2 per year (4.7 kBTU/ft2 per year)
  • Total primary energy demand of less than 120 kWh/m2 per year (38 kBTU/ft2 per year)
  • Air-tightness off max. 0.6 ACH@50 Pa or less
  • The peak heating demand should be less than 10 W/m2 (3.2 BTU/ft2)
  • High efficient heat recovery over 80% or higher
  • Window U-values of less than 0.8 W/m2K (0.15 BTU/ft2F, R-7.1)

Most Passive Houses rely on:

  • Very heavy insulation R40-R60 in walls, R50-R90 in roofs, R30-R50 under slabs
  • Triple glazed windows with low e glass and exceptional avoidance of thermal bridging
  • Ultra airtight construction
  • Passive solar gain for a portion of the heating by orienting the house to the south and using the window Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) of around 0.5 or higher if possible
  • Heat recovery with earth tubes or with energy recovery ventilators to reach high 80% to low 90% efficiency
  • Heating of the ventilation air to provide space heating and thermal comfort, although many homes use radiant floors, walls, ceilings and radiators
  • Achieving the specific Passive Home target of 15 kWh/m2 per year for heating onsite energy use

Diagram of a passive house

Creating your perfect home that reaches all of these requirements may seem like a daunting project at first. This is why Pacific Homes will go out of their way to make the entire process as seamless and stress-free as possible. From design, to engineering to construction, we will create your perfectly personalized dream home.

Our plans or yours, we build them all!

Contact a Build Specialist Today