In the NYT Europe, they recently had an article about "Passive Houses." These are homes with no primary heating system. Yet they are able to maintain a comfortable temperature even on the coldest of days, and in the event that the house cannot, it does have supplemental heat. Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/world/europe/27house.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&em A google search has yielded no hits in the US. My guess is that it's called something else here in the US. Has anyone come across this type of construction? If so, where can I read more about it? Thank you Jason

Sorry Bruce, I didn't notice your post on PassivHaus. Looks to be the same article in both papers. Anyhow, I would really like to see if this is already being done here in the states.




Jason

There is lots of activity with Passivehouse in the states right now, it's combining with and building on the existing super-insulation / building science practices.

We are using the technique with modifications depending on the client, it's been good to think hard about how to get rid of the expensive and complicated equipment that current houses are full of. Our BrightBuilt Barn project is right in line with all the Passivehouse techniques: Tightly air sealed (<0.6 ACH50) & low heat demand (<5,000 BTU / SF / YR).

We've been caught in the "most expensive house" syndrome for a while, better insulation, better radiant / geo-thermal, better everything with nothing getting cheaper. Designing the house around the ventilation system has been a great change.

Links to follow:

http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PHIUSHome.html
http://www.e-colab.org/
http://www.energysmiths.com/

I found this while looking for stuff on passive houses.

http://www.100khouse.com/

Don't know if it's an actual passive house or just "green."

I found another architecture called "envelope" houses. While they are slightly different, the overall concept is the same. No need for oil/propane/natural gas as a primary source of heat. What amazes me is envelope construction started in the late 70's, but never really took off. One speculation is that construction material/techniques were not evolved enough at the time to support mass production of an envelope house.


For me, I am looking at a "passive house" as my next/last house. Recently I was over in Germany. When talking about their houses, they don't talk about 5,10 or 20 years. Their homes are built to be around for centuries. This started my wheels thinking that houses exist in the US for that long, but the are not necessarily constructed with that in mind. Prior to my trip, I had been considering building an ICF home that is partially buried using geothermal to heat the home and a masonry wood stove, and solar for electricity and hot water. Now, I would change the geothermal heat to a passive system.

From reading about passive houses, you can go 500 square foot per person. There are 5 of us now, which would yield a total of 2500 square foot. However, what happens if I build to the that spec, and the kids go to college leaving just the wife and myself. Once that has happened, we would only be able to support a 1000 square foot home. My hope is that the center masonry wood stove would be sufficient to make up for the loss. Mind you, I don't need a 2500 square foot home. My guess is that we would be in the 1500-2000 square foot range.

For building partially buried, the first floor would be half underground, and half above. What I don't know (I am not an architect), is whether or not I could put a basement under the first floor that is partially buried. The second floor would be the only floor that is completely open to the elements. When I say partially buried, I do not mean into the side of a hill. I refer to on level ground. This may not be possible overall. I do realize that the water table would play a role in determining if this would work. The land we sit on today would support this from a water table standpoint.


If anyone has any suggestions/recommendations, then please feel free to fire away. We are probably 5-10 years away from this happening. Between now and then, much will change. However, I want to start on preliminary data gathering, and architectural drawings.