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Passive House Training in Alberta
Passive House Alberta is Alberta’s newest association dedicated to promoting the Passive House standard for a better built environment.
The Passive House standard is a voluntary energy-based building standard. In the last decade, progressive Canadian building professionals and homeowners have increasingly adopted the standard in order to meet higher performance standards, whether those are code mandated (think the BC Energy Step Code) or personal preference (those who commit to environmentally conscious lifestyles).
What is the Passive House Standard?
Buildings built to the Passive House standard require very little energy to maintain a constant, pleasant temperature in all seasons. As a result, not only are Passive House buildings more comfortable for the occupants, they also consume up to 90 percent less heating and cooling energy than conventional buildings. Here is a 90-second video that explains Passive House:
For more information on Passive House, visit Passipedia, the International Passive House Association Passive House resource centre.
What are the Passive House Requirements?
In order to achieve Passive House certification, the international Passive House Standard requires:
- Space Heating Demand: not to exceed 15 kWh annually OR 10W (peak demand) per square metre of usable living space.
- Space Cooling Demand: roughly matches the heat demand with an additional, climate-dependent allowance for dehumidification.
- Primary Energy Demand: not to exceed 120 kWh annually for all domestic applications (heating, cooling, hot water, and domestic electricity) per square metre of usable living space.
- Airtightness: maximum of 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 Pascals pressure (as verified with an onsite pressure test in both pressurised and depressurised states).
- Thermal Comfort: must be met for all living areas year-round with not more than 10% of the hours in any given year over 25°C.
For additional requirements, view the Complete Passive House brochure here.
Passive House Alberta Courses
Passive House Alberta has created two courses to help promote the many benefits of the Passive House standard. They offer a series of educational courses in many Albertan communities for homeowners and building professionals who care about sustainability, energy efficiency and creating healthier work, home and play environments.
Innotech Windows + Doors is a proud sponsor of Passive House Alberta. Our team will be on-hand during the courses to answer any questions about windows and doors. We invite you to visit their website to find a Passive House in your community.