The term Passive House comes from Germany. It is not to be confused with passive solar heating or cooling, although that plays a part. From the German Passiv Haus site: A passive house is a building in which a comfortable interior climate can be maintained without active heating and cooling systems (Adamson 1987 and Feist […]
Passive House Defined Read More »
My friend Eric Gunnar Rochow from the great show GardenFork.TV came by the Brooklyn Green Show House to see our green renovation progress. If you are interested in a five minute tour of the show house with me and Eric check this out. GarenFork.TV is a cool show where Eric combines wholesome living with intelligent
GardenFork.TV Visits Brooklyn Green Show House Read More »
I’ve been discussing a lot with my colleagues how best to reach Passive House standards in a green Brooklyn brownstone renovation. Passive House (a German building system not to be confused with passive solar) is a good benchmark because if you do it correctly you really don’t need a heating system. Here is one comment
Brooklyn Passive House Read More »
How feasible is it to green renovate a Brooklyn Brownstone along Passive House standards? After looking into it the main issue I see is the lack of space. A brownstone has a fixed building line, usually something along the dimensions of 20×40 feet. At least a foot of that is taken up by bricks, leaving
Passive House in Brooklyn’s Space Craved Brownstones Read More »
Here is an interesting Comment by John Straube, which was responded to by the Passiv Haus people here.. His comments give good US insights into a German standard. His points are that Passiv Haus standards are not brand new and that US and Canada have had them for a while. Not that many have implemented
Insight PassivHaus Becomes Active—Further Commentary on PassivHaus Read More »
The Passive House building system from Germany is one of my favorite benchmarks. I have yet to renovate a Brooklyn brownstone by Passive House standards, although the Brooklyn Green Show House of ours comes very close. We hope to do a Passive House brownstone renovation very soon though. A recent article by John Straube of
The Passive House guidelines are the best benchmark I know of right now for building a house. According to the Passive House Planning Package, there is no requirement that a house be designed by an official Passive House Consultant. The main requirements are: 1) Maximum of 15 kWh/(m^2a) heat load 2) Maximum of 0.6 ACH(50)
