Not all energy efficient home are truly passive. How to know for certain you’re getting what you’re paying for
Putting A Rolls Royce Badge On A Toyota
There is nothing inherently wrong with replica products (like furniture and grocery items). Some ‘no brand’ products are as good as the originals they are modelled after. But when you are paying top dollar for a premium original, you want to be sure that’s what you’re getting. This is especially true when you are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for (what you think is) a Certified Passivhaus.
As energy efficient building is becoming more popular, builders, real estate agents, and even product suppliers are using terms like ‘passivhaus’ quite loosely (i.e. dishonestly). As a result, homeowners are too often paying for a ‘Rolls Royce’ and getting a ‘Toyota’.
What Makes A House Truly Passive?
All passivhaus are energy efficient. But not all energy efficient homes are passive. A Certified Passivhaus provides the highest levels of all-year comfort and energy efficiency possible.
A house cannot simply be labelled by anyone as a Passivhaus after it is built. It must have passed rigorous standards of energy efficiency at every stage of the design and building process. These standards are monitored and certified by the International Passivhaus Institute. Only then will your house receive a genuine Plaque of Certification.
Two Tests For A Passivhaus
ONE: The certification process for a Passivhaus involves using the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP). This requires a Passivhaus Consultant (to guide the process) and a Passivhaus Certifier (to verify the result). If you’re not paying fees for these extra services, you are not getting a Certified Passivhaus .
TWO: Building a Passivhaus requires extreme attention to detail in both the choice of building materials and the workmanship that goes into installing them. In order to monitor this, the Passivhaus Institute require builders to document these things through a series of photos including wall junctions, window installation, roof assembly, insulation, and all product labels and stickers (insulation, glass etc.). If your builder is not sending these photos to the Passivhaus Institute for verification, you are not getting a Certified Passivhaus.
Even when your home is fully built, it is still not certified until everything (including your ‘as built’ plans) are sent to the Passivhaus Institute. It usually takes 6-8 weeks for everything to be checked and verified before you receive your plaque of certification.
Is Certified Passivhaus Worth It?
That’s obviously a personal choice. But once you’ve experienced the benefits of a truly Passivhaus – the energy savings and stable 18-24 degree internal temperature when the outside temperature dips below zero and sores towards forty – it’s hard to go back to living in a normal house.
When people who own Passivhaus visit friends, they say it feels like going from a Rolls Royce to a Toyota. It still gets you there, but instead of arriving refreshed after a perfectly smooth, whisper-quiet ride, you’re exhausted from every bump and the constant wind and road noise.
But if your budget won’t quite stretch to passive certification, we offer a range of High Efficiency and Improved Custom Homes that follow the exact same standards. Although they may not reach quite the same comfort and energy efficiency levels of a Certified Passivhaus, they far exceed standard homes. While not quite a Rolls Royce, they certainly reach Mercedes standards (at a Toyota price).
Whether you're looking to achieve certified passivhaus standards, or you simply want a house that is healthy, comfortable, and energy-efficient, we'd be glad to show you exactly how to do it the right way via our special report, The 5 Key Skills of an Energy Efficient Builder.
