The 'Passive Housing' Trend is Booming (yahoo.com)
- Reference: 0175382377
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/24/11/02/202229/the-passive-housing-trend-is-booming
- Source link: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/passive-house-trend-booming-185419884.html
> Their benefits include protection from pollution and pollen, noise insulation and a stable indoor temperature that minimizes energy needs. That translates to long-term savings on heating and cooling.
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> While the concept has been around for about 50 years, experts say that the United States is on the cusp of a passive house boom, driven by lowered costs, state-level energy code changes and a general greater awareness of — and desire for — [2]more sustainable housing ... Massachusetts — which alongside New York and Pennsylvania is one of the leading states in passive house adoption — has 272 passive house projects underway thanks to an incentive program, says Zack Semke [the director of the [3]Passive House Accelerator , a group of industry professionals who aim to spread lessons in passive house building]. Consumer demand for passive houses is also increasing, says Michael Ingui, an architect in New York City and the founder of the Passive House Accelerator... The need to lower our energy footprint is so much more top-of-mind today than it was 10 years ago, Ingui says, and covid taught us about the importance of good ventilation and filtered fresh air. "People are searching for the healthiest house," he says, "and that's a passive house...."
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> These days, new passive houses are usually large, multifamily apartment buildings or high-end single-family homes. But that leaves out a large swath of homeowners in the middle. To widen passive house accessibility to include all types of people and their housing needs, we need better energy codes and even more policies and incentives, says In Cho, a sustainability architect, educator and a co-founder of the nonprofit [4]Passive House for Everyone ! Passive houses "can and should serve folks from all socioeconomic backgrounds," she says. Using a one-two punch of mandates for energy efficient buildings and greater awareness to the public, that increased demand for passive houses will lead to more supply, Cho says. And we're already seeing those changes in the market.
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> Take triple-pane windows, for example, which are higher performing and more insulating than their double-pane counterparts. Even just 10 to 20 years ago, the difference in price between the two was high enough to make triple-pane windows cost-prohibitive for a lot of people, Cho says. Over the years, as the benefits of higher performing windows became more well-known, and as cities and states changed their energy codes, more companies began producing better windows. Now they're basically at price parity, she says. If we keep pushing for greater awareness and further policy changes, it's possible that all of the components of passive house buildings could follow that trend.
"For large multifamily projects, we're already seeing price parity [5]in some cases , Semke says...
"But as it stands, single-family passive houses are still likely to cost a margin more than non-passive houses, he says. This is because price parity is easier to achieve when working at larger scales, but also because many of the housing policies and incentives encouraging passive house buildings are geared toward these larger projects."
[1] https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/passive-house-trend-booming-185419884.html
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2024/03/05/energy-efficient-net-zero-adu/
[3] https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/
[4] https://www.passivehouseforeveryone.org/
[5] https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2018/12/31/pa-affordable-housing-tax-credits-pennsylvania-housing-finance-agency-passive-house-design/stories/201812190012
Passive (Score:2)
Passive houses. Slightly more efficient than efficient houses. [1]https://www.energy.gov/energys... [energy.gov]
[1] https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/efficient-home-design
Windows? (Score:3)
a perfect seal that prevents outside air from penetrating the home; air flows in and out through filtration and exhaust systems only.
I'm presuming this means never opening windows which in turn means no getting fresh, cool, free air in the spring and fall. Instead, something electical is always running to keep the air flowing. Doesn't sound efficient or cost-effective. But then, that's the American way. Why get something for free when you can spend money?
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In Fallout 4 make sure you go behind the line of houses on the left in your home neighborhood and go down into the bomb shelter for some starter goodies and climb the fallen tree to the roof of the house nearby for a bag of other stuff you'll want early game.
It was stuffy down there but worth it.
They open + you can't concentrate and sweat (Score:2)
> a perfect seal that prevents outside air from penetrating the home; air flows in and out through filtration and exhaust systems only.
> I'm presuming this means never opening windows which in turn means no getting fresh, cool, free air in the spring and fall. Instead, something electical is always running to keep the air flowing. Doesn't sound efficient or cost-effective. But then, that's the American way. Why get something for free when you can spend money?
Passive housing windows in Europe often tilt outward, but they definitely open. Also, it was pioneered in Germany and Northern Europe...where heating fuel is a lot more expensive....not "the American Way." Folks there, usually comment how we're too dependant on AC, so they definitely rely on opening windows in the summer.
Finally, sorry folks...AC is essential for work. If you're sweating, you're not concentrating. Europeans can scoff at Americans all they want, but we are leading the software world,
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Passive housing windows in Europe often tilt outward,
This doesn't constitute a perfect seal and probably not what this article is about.
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> I'm presuming this means never opening windows which in turn means no getting fresh, cool, free air in the spring and fall. Instead, something electical is always running to keep the air flowing. Doesn't sound efficient or cost-effective.
It is extremely efficient, especially several years on when the seals on operable windows wear out and start leaking. It's about controlling the flow of energy in and out of the house, and if it only takes 100-200 watts to optimize that it's a win year over year. Havin
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> air flows in and out through filtration and exhaust systems only
I have a dog, a cat and kids. Air is going to be flowing in and out the doors almost constantly.
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Have you tried wrapping them in plastic and attaching a small AC unit?
It's an old idea but a good one (Score:3)
When I was a hippy back in the 60s there was a magazine called Mother Earth News that was full of DIY homesteading ideas. This was one of them. It was called an 'envelope house' due to the wrap-around air circulation.
Health (Score:2)
Hermetically sealing a house sounds like a great way to make the inside air pretty unhealthy.
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An air to air heat exchanger is a good idea for sure.
Super-insulated makes sense in new construction up north. For existing housing there isn't much you can do after the attic is insulated and the windows upgraded.
Fair point, but we have options (Score:2)
> Hermetically sealing a house sounds like a great way to make the inside air pretty unhealthy.
That is a reasonable point, but consider that windows open. If it's a nice day, open the windows. However, most of us Americans live in areas with cold winters and hot summers. In cold winters, it's worth relying on moderately priced air filters to keep the air clean and your heating bills down. In summers?...well...if you don't want to run the AC, that's your choice. For some regions, that's a death sentence for toddlers, the elderly, or infirmed. However, I lived without AC for a few years when I wa
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> Hermetically sealing a house sounds like a great way to make the inside air pretty unhealthy.
I own an "Energy Star 2016" rated house in the US southwest. It's built with chemically expanded rigid foam insulation applied to the space in the exterior 2x6 stud walls, including the attic & garage. When we bought it, it was sealed quite tightly. It has a heat pump that can extract heat from outside air down to at least 0 deg/F (-17/C), and it has an outside air induction system that has a "minutes per hour" adjustment controller that forces the air-handler to turn on and pull filtered air in from
Not sure it's a great idea to filter everything (Score:1)
It seems like the human body has to have time to build up tolerance and resistance.
If you have a sealed house with near perfect filtration, whenever you go outside you are going to be miserable, and possibly get kind of sick (or at least have your immune system weakened to get sick via other means).
While I would dearly love to seal up a house so much outside dust would never bean issue, I value my own family's health too much to strive for something like that...
Seems just as effective to use natural air tem
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Most of the "dust" probably comes off the occupants in the form of dead skin and hair.
Some does sure, but if you live is most places in the west that have an arid to semi-arid climate, you get the same dust outside as in so a lot of it really is environmental.
Also pollen can be a major component of dust in areas that are more humid. And it's worse to clean being more sticky.
Gonna see lots of WaPo stories out there going fwd (Score:2)
I'm expecting Bezos is gonna be dumping a huge amount of money into PR, attempting to salvage the once-storied reputation of the newspaper he managed to destroy in one fell swoop.
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This is super off topic but he hasn't done anything yet.
He's been pretty hands off since it bought it. If you think declaring that he wants to get away from the appearance of bias is the same as destroying the paper then that's just really weird. Real newspapers should strive for and be proud of being free of bias as humanly possible. When half the population thinks your paper is unfit to wrap fit or the bottom of a bird cage there's a problem with your paper, not the people.
Entropy (Score:1)
Entropy has it's way with both building-level and municipal infrastructure. I don't want to think about a slow water leak somewhere between floors of a large building.
Loans, mortgages, and insurance. (Score:2)
[1]https://commercialobserver.com... [commercialobserver.com]
"By lowering utility and energy costs — which make up 30 percent of operating expenses for multifamily buildings, and can be a pathway to more profitability, especially in rent-capped affordable housing — passive house construction can make buildings more productive assets over time. The lower energy load also makes electrification more cost competitive. Traditionally, though, most financing options for construction don’t incorporate those savings into und
[1] https://commercialobserver.com/2023/09/passive-house-construction-financing-regulation/
Mold and mildew farms. (Score:2)
You get one big problem with hermetically sealed houses: mold and mildew can get really, really bad. You can get wood rot as well. There are good reasons why homes have soffit vents. (https://roofinginsights.com/what-is-a-soffit-vent/)
But having a highly energy efficient home can make economic sense and not have this problem. (Depending how much it costs to get there.) It's also a heck of a lot easier to do on new construction vs. remediation on old construction.
"Prevents outside air from entering the home" (Score:4, Insightful)
Hermetically sealing the structure is probably the wrong approach, actually. You'd be better off with orienting the home toward prevailing winds, using DC-powered ceiling fans and ultimately getting over your phobia of having open windows. I've spend many summers in the deep south with old homes built like this, and a sealed building that depends on AC is much more miserable.
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Actually the sealed builing relies on retaining the building's internal temperature, so insulation and no air leaks.
When I built my house in CA, the Accurate Dorwin (Canada) triple glazed windows included a thermal break to reduce conduction from the outside. I considered the US Big Gorilla, Andersen, but at the time the website would not provide any factual data and required a sales visit. No thanks.
No. It's a good one for most of us + windows open (Score:4)
> Hermetically sealing the structure is probably the wrong approach, actually. You'd be better off with orienting the home toward prevailing winds, using DC-powered ceiling fans and ultimately getting over your phobia of having open windows. I've spend many summers in the deep south with old homes built like this, and a sealed building that depends on AC is much more miserable.
Passive housing is relatively common in Germany as well as other parts of Northern Europe. If you can afford it, it's very nice. However, we can't orient our homes. We have to build in whichever way the lot is facing, especially for thos of us living in the city. If you live in the Deep South, maybe you don't need heat, but we do in the NorthEast and spend a LOT of money heating our homes so we don't shiver while wearing sweat pants and sweaters around the house.
And you know the windows open, right? In Germany, new homes often have windows that are extra efficient and tilt outward. (I assume other wealthy Northern European nations as well). They're unheard of here, but they're supposed to be much much much better insulated.
Re: "Prevents outside air from entering the home" (Score:1)
"Prevents unconditioned air from entering the home" is more accurate. Passive houses are built with ERVs to provide a constant source of fresh air to the building and remove waste air while keeping the heat in/out.
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This answered my question, thanks.
US homes are designed to allow outside air to come through to keep inside air from getting stagnant. Without a system in place to constantly move air through artificially the inside air would very quickly become unpleasant in a sealed structure.
Tl;Dr our homes are intentionally leaky so they don't get stinky.
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> Hermetically sealing the structure is probably the wrong approach
Passive homes are not hermetically sealed.
They use counter-current heat exchangers to pull in fresh air and warm it with the inside air going out.
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Hermetically sealed is, indeed, overkill, with bad effects. But there are lots of benefits to good insulation and controlled air flow. Elimination of pollen is only one of them.
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I don't have a "phobia" about opening windows - I have sinus allergies that include the neighbor's large oak tree. Letting in that pollen and dust from the leaves is terrible for my breathing, so I keep the windows closed and run the AC. Having a way to bring in filtered outside air would be better.
Though - sealing up the walls/ceiling/roof of a structure is a good way to seal in what rises from the ground in some places: radon gas. While crawlspace houses are more susceptible, even slab houses can get it (