Passivhaus— Past and Present

German physicist Wolfgang Feist is credited as the originator of the Passivhaus concept, having completed his first Passivhaus prototype in 1991. Later in the decade, he received a grant for the completion of a comprehensive five-year survey of existing super-insulated buildings across Europe. This survey became the inspiration for creating a set of achievable standards for building insulation, with the potential for vastly reduced energy use.

During the last two decades, tight, super-insulated windows—pioneered mostly by German manufacturers—with greatly reduced radiant heat loss have made possible building envelope tightness that fits the strict Passivhaus standards. Triple-pane sashes, reductions in thermal bridging through the frames, and low-e coatings have resulted in windows that offer insulation values up to R-10.

Passivhaus came to North America when, in 2003, architect Katrin Klingenberg designed and built a private residence in Urbana, Illinois, to Passivhaus criteria. Klingenberg later founded the Passive House Institute U.S. (PHIUS) to promote the concept in North America. Ironically, she never had her first few projects formally certified to Passivhaus standards. The honor of the first certified Passivhaus building built in the United States belongs to the Waldsee Biohaus, a German language school in Bemidji, Minnesota.

In little more than a decade, Passivhaus has blossomed into a full-grown movement in Europe, with more than 20,000 residences completed (mostly in Germany and Austria) and many more in the works. In the United States, there are an estimated 75 completed structures (not all yet certified), with about 100 more in various stages of planning and building. Unlike the more intimidating LEED standards, builders find Passivhaus’ clear and simple guidelines easy to follow—and with integration with the existing HERS rating system, straightforward to certify.

One criticism of Passivhaus has been that most of the insulations used to achieve a high-performance envelope are fossil-fuel-based. Advocates counter that it is better to use fossil fuels once (in a product’s manufacture) to create extremely low-energy buildings rather than use them every day in inefficient housing. Innovative builders are using recycled cellulose insulation, along with foam-based ones, to create a tight, superinsulated home while minimizing the use of fossil-fuel-based products.