Passive House – Home Performance Design

When a homeowner makes the decision to build a sustainable home, there are often trade-offs required to meet the principles of green home design while trying not to sacrifice our North American lifestyle.  Now, what happens when you layer in a rigorous European home design approach that is not easily incorporated into an ‘off grid’ house on Gabriola Island?  Well, in a word…Creativity.  

Recently, Ecolighten had the opportunity to collaborate on a custom new Passive Home project on Gabriola Island. In short, Passive House is one of the world’s leading standards in energy-efficient construction and the concept is a rigorous home design standard that includes a very well-insulated, virtually air-tight building that is primarily heated by passive solar gain and by internal gains from people and electrical equipment.  The Gabriola Island project showcases how project challenges are met through creative solutions, innovative technologies, sound financial and energy modeling that is combined through integrated design process to create a Passive House without sacrificing some of the conveniences and amenities of the North American lifestyle.  

As you’ll see from the full Project Summary, this Passive Home had some unique challenges that required innovative solutions from Ecolighten.  The project highlights include:

• Full project consultation
• Load calculations
• 2-Line AutoCAD design with mechanical room layout
• Full equipment schedule and quotation review
• Passive house certification
• Heat recovery ventilation (HRV) with integrated controls
• Rain water harvest and integrated well water
• Water treatment

Through Home Performance Design, Ecolighten provides architects, builders and their client’s Mechanical Design, Green Home Certification and Energy Services support for new home construction and major renovation projects.