Passive House Seminar

Courtesy of Matthew Engel blog 

Yesterday, I started out on the road at 5am to attend a day-long seminar (presented by HalfMoon Seminars) in Cincy about the green building trend called Passive House that is soon to become much more of a mainstream practice... my prediction. While I could explain to you many of the facts and details about this new green building standard, I prefer to let you know why I am sold. Americans cringe at the idea of having to turn off their lights with hyper-maintenance, to wash our hands with cold water, to freeze during the middle of the night under a down comforter, and to just skimp on the comforts we have grown up with. I am the type of person who loves to skimp and save on energy whenever possible.. but this is just not a realistic expectation for the average American.

The crux of my admiration for Passive House is that the theory and the standard makes a home for a family that works to save 90-95% of the energy other homes of equal size use to heat and cool the interior. The air that circulates through the home has been purified and is monitored to circulate regularly. So, finally, a home design that performs with a very high level of excellence, yet does not require much (if any) more maintenance than any other home. May I also emphasize the fact that this housing design standard does not add much more initial building expense to the project... much less than slapping PV's onto your roof. It does take a professional to design this home... one who is well-versed with how to calculate the geographic traits of a particular site, one who can dance through mechanical equations, and one who wears an inventor hat. Afterall, that is what we should all expect from a design professional any way.

The CSC Design Studio in Lexington presented the workshop. www.cscdesignstudio.com.

My full article will be featured in AIA Ohio's Architypes later this year.