via Nabih Tahan
Correction: This house is techinically not a ‘Passive House’ yet, as it has not passed one of the final requirements to be classified as such: a blower door test to attain a minimum of 0.6 ACH at 50pa. Mr. Tahan hopes to attain Passive House standard in the near future.
Correction: It is by no means the first Passive House house in the US, but is the first remodel to attempt to reach Passive House standards. Please refer to the PHIUS website for a complete history of the first Passive House in the US, and more detailed information on the PH standard.
NY Times: Nabih Tahan, a California architect who worked in Austria for 11 years, is completing one of the first passive houses in the United States for his family in Berkeley. He heads a group of 70 Bay Area architects and engineers working to encourage wider acceptance of the standards. “This is a recipe for energy that makes sense to people,” Mr. Tahan said. “Why not reuse this heat you get for free?”
Home Energy Magazine: The Passivhaus concept, (the word is German for “passive house”), which is rapidly gaining in popularity in Central Europe, evolved from the American superinsulated buildings of the ’70s. It forms the basis of the Passive House standard—one of the most demanding energy performance-based standards in the world. Because the building envelope is super insulated and is almost completely airtight, a Passive House can recycle heat generated from the residents’ daily activities, such as the use of lighting and appliances. This heat is recycled through a heat recovery ventilator (HRV), making a conventional heating system unnecessary. However, the building code requires a heating system, which is why we had to install electric baseboard heaters to meet Title 24 requirements. Homes built according to Passive House principles have three important attributes of sustainable design and construction. These attributes are energy efficiency, comfort, and excellent indoor air quality (IAQ).