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SubscribeNewsletterMagazine Archives

Passive House Standard

  • Events

    Hot and Humid Addressed Head-On

    Make plans now to attend the Humid Climate Conference, which returns to Austin, Texas May 2nd and 3rd, 2022.

    3 MIN READ
  • Remodeling

    Why Window Installers Should Move Into Passive Houses

    3 MIN READ
  • How To

    Insulating Foundations in Earthquake Country

    6 MIN READ
    This rendering by California architect Dan Hruby shows the insulated footing detail for developer Tyson Dirksen’s project in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood. The heavily reinforced footing supports three stories of concrete and steel construction set underneath an existing wood-frame house, which was lifted one story to create a fourunit multifamily building. Two inches of EPS insulation isolates the building’s lower apartments from the surrounding earth.
  • How To

    Energy Retrofit for a Bonus Room Over a Garage

    9 MIN READ
  • How To

    Blower Doors and Energy Retrofits

    8 MIN READ
    Many older can lights of this type are not rated for contact with insulation. In that case, the repair involves building a sealed box of rigid foil-faced insulation around the fixture, making sure the box is large enough to provide the required air space.
  • Projects

    A High-Performance Country Cottage

    Figure 1. Approximately two years ago, my wife and I broke ground on a super-insulated home based on Passive House design, in Morrisville, Vt. We built the 1,000-square-foot home on property we owned with the notion of moving into it when we downsize our lives in the future (in the near term we plan to rent it out). And although we built it to meet PHIUS Passive House certification—adding saleable value—we’re not pursuing official PHIUS certification. Our goal was to build an attractive home that needs very little energy to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. With the help of Passive House consultant, Chris West of Eco Houses of Vermont, we built a cozy, aesthetically-pleasing home with the lowest heating bills modern building science can provide. The whole house has a heating load of approximately 3,200 Btu/hour at -2°F. The typical code-built house of this size has a heating load in the 50,000 Btu/hour range. For information about the detailing of home’s stone and cedar shingle cladding, see Backfill (Jun/16).
  • How To

    Curved Cap for a Stone Base

    1 MIN READ
  • Projects

    Habitat House Part 1: Principles, Budget, and Priorities

    7 MIN READ
  • Energy

    Unvented Flat Roofs: Theory Meets Practice in Rural Vermont

    6 MIN READ
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  • How To

    Wayland Passive House: The Airtight Insulated Shell

    2 MIN READ
    A framer nails reinforcing steel straps to 2x4 furring at the hip, applied over six inches of Roxul rockwool insulation.
  • How To

    Is OSB an Effective Air Barrier?

    6 MIN READ
    Architect Richard Pedranti, HERS rater Pete Vargo, consultant Bryan Kehm, and builder Rob Ciervo tape plastic over the OSB sheathing during a blower-door test.
  • How To

    Flood in a Passive House: Lessons Learned

    4 MIN READ
    The overnight plumbing break flooded the newly built Passive House with more than a foot of water, some of which was able to seep into the outer insulated cavity of EcoCor's double wall system. Here, a worker pulls damp insulation out of the outer wall from inside the house.
  • Projects

    Vermont Modular Builder Shoots for Net Zero

    2 MIN READ
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  • How To

    Maine Remodel Beats Passive House Standards

    3 MIN READ
    Architect Rachel Conly watches as Harvey Johnson adjusts the settings of the blower door control.
  • Projects

    Warm House for a Cold, Cold Winter

    1 MIN READ
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  • Energy

    Electric Water Heating for a Low-Load Home

    8 MIN READ
    Placeholder Image
  • On the Job

    Installing Windows in a Deep Wall

    5 MIN READ
    Placeholder Image
  • How To

    Adding an Insulated Envelope

    12 MIN READ
    Placeholder Image
  • How To

    Installing an ERV in a Two-Family Passive House

    2 MIN READ
    In this composite split image, Placetailor carpenter Diego Gutierrez (left) guides air lines through the ceiling framing while project manager Travis Anderson (right) pulls the lines into place at the Air Pohoda heat exchanger and air handler.
  • How To

    JLC June Letters

    4 MIN READ
    Placeholder Image

Trending

  • Tools

    Laser Levels

    9 MIN READ
  • JLC Case Study

    Building in the Unknown: Pushing Forward with Attainable Zero

    4 MIN READ
  • Backfill

    Why Do We Say Joists and Rafters?

    3 MIN READ
Editorial Cover

Digital Edition 2025

Only JLC subscribers have access to content from the May/June issue of JLC at this time. Articles will be posted online soon. In the meantime, feel free to browse the digital edition.

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