Passive House with Johnny Rezvani

The Passive House (Haus) movement is a design standard that challenges builders and architects to create a house that uses as little energy as it can! There is no right or wrong way to go about achieving this standard but in order to achieve a Passive House Certification the build team does have to implement a plan and prove that the performance of the building does meet the passive house energy standard.

The Passive House Standard was invented by  Dr. Wolfgang Feist as a means to regenerate Earth's health by reducing the amount of energy a home uses. While solar panels may change the source of energy for a house or building, a Passive House uses less energy. Way less! We're talking 10% of what a "normal" building uses. To avoid using so much energy, the best place to reduce consumption is in the heating and cooling of a building. In fact, 40% or more of our household energy consumption is used for heating and cooling!

Johnny Rezvani, our excellent guest speaker today, is the Communications Director for 475 High Performance Building Supply. 475 supplies various products for these passive buildings to be built. Such as moisture evaporating weather wrap, which in such an air tight house, is very important for reducing moisture levels and avoiding mold buildup.

Johnny says the buildings that do not entirely reach the Passive House Standard are classified as "high performances homes" because they still perform to better energy efficiency than a standard building. Johnny also explains how and why these buildings feel different. The building design is focused on temperature regulating through the extremes of summer and winter. Thus, the whole home stays 72 degrees Fahrenheit all year round. Which means the heating and cooling bill are $0.

If any additional heat in the home is needed in the winter, a simple towel heating rack in the bathroom is enough to heat the whole house! How is this possible? The building is sealed so tightly, the walls are so thick, and the windows are all triple pane that it is difficult for heat to transfer from the inside to the outside of the building. This also creates a sound proof home that blocks noise from the outside. There is also a lot of thought that goes into meeting a Passive House Standard. This includes where the sun will be in the summer vs winter and how can the building be built to intake more sunlight in the winter and less in the summer. Window coverings and angles also play a large factor so that the house can be naturally heated.

How cool is this?!? (no pun intended).

For more information check out these links! 475 has a great YouTube channel so there is one link for that!
Johnny Rezvani on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnnyrezvani/).
Passive House Institute (https://passivehouse.com/).
Passive House United States site (https://www.phius.org/phius-certification-for-buildings-products).
475 High Performance Building Supply (https://foursevenfive.com/).
475's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/475HighPerformanceBuildingSupply).
Passive House Accelerator which has some super in-depth information and virtual meetings every week (https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/)!
The first certified Passive House in Colorado (https://www.5280.com/2020/08/this-colorado-getaway-is-the-states-first-certified-passive-house/).
Architect Andrew Michler'