European Passivhaus tailored for North America in new standard

The European Passivhaus metric isn’t necessarily well suited to varied climate zones outside of Central Europe, so a new standard is being developed that will address all U.S. climate zones. Preliminary results are looking very promising, says Katrin Klingenberg, co-founder and executive director of Passive Haus Institute U.S. PHIUS is already accepting projects under a pilot certification program. The final format is still to be determined. Originally, a zone-based standard model was envisioned, but the study may produce an equation that accurately calculates the respective heating, cooling demand, and peak loads by location.

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