Passive House Modern

This is a five bedroom, four full and one half-bath home that was built for a private client and his family. An existing home in poor condition was demolished prior to construction. Our client wanted the home to achieve net zero and Passive House performance levels, without formal Passive House certification. Based on the first year’s electric bills, the home is performing as expected at a level very close to net zero. The homeowners could choose to achieve net zero performance with a small addition to the solar PV system at any point in the future.

Type: New Construction, Custom Green Home

Special Features

Open-concept living layout
5” white oak floors
Built-in shelving throughout
Custom kitchen and bathroom cabinetry
En-suite master bedroom and bath
Finished and fully conditioned basement

Green Building Approaches

Right side of house faces solar south to capture winter heat.
1,036sf of east, south, and west-facing windows capture roughly half the energy required for space heating
10.72kw PV panels on the roof should provide more energy than the annual operating needs
8” of EPS rigid foam board insulation under the slab
3” of continuous closed-cell (low GWP) spray foam insulation applied to basement walls
3.5” of dense-pack cellulose between 2×4 studs on interior face of basement walls
2×4 double wall framing to practically eliminate thermal bridging
2” of closed-cell spray foam applied to interior face of exterior wall sheathing
Exterior sheathing includes 1” of polyiso rigid foam insulation to further reduce thermal bridging
8.5” of dense-pack cellulose insulation completes exterior wall insulation
Attic floor is insulated with 24” of dense-pack cellulose
Acrylic sheathing tapes used to achieve exceptional air-tightness of 0.40 ACH50
European triple-glazed aluminum-clad wood windows with u-values of 0.13 (roughly R-8)
Small ducted air-source heat pump system heats and cools the entire house
No central heating or cooling required
Heat pump water heater extracts heat from interior air
Energy recovery ventilation is delivered via a dedicated small diameter duct distribution system
Fiber cement siding installed over a drainage plane
Exterior trim made from recycled fly ash and rated for ground contact
100% LED lighting
Low-flow water fixtures throughout