passive house nyc:
Having completed the Passive House Institute US consultant training, I am pleased to add this significant skill-set to the services I offer.
The Passivehouse Standard is a simple, compelling set of energy-efficiency benchmarks: a 90% reduction in heating/cooling energy used and 65-70% reduction in total energy used relative to a building built to code. It is not an incremental transformation. The reductions are achieved through higher-than-standard levels of insulation, a building envelope that is unusually resistant to uncontrolled air infiltration, tremendous care in identifying and eliminating thermal bridges through the envelope, and through planning of the building massing. Dramatic improvements in the building envelope result in corresponding dramatic reductions in the required heating and cooling equipment, resulting in an economically feasible building methodology with attractive payback periods reaped in saved operating costs. It reduces building energy consumption to levels that can be met via renewable sources like PV solar and biofuels.
It is a tremendously exciting movement which is leading the way in the US.
Additional information:
A recent article in the NY Times:
NYT - Can We Build a Brighter Shade of Green?
The local chapter of the Passive House Alliance: NYPH
The US National Institute: PHIUS
The parent organization in Germany: Passive House Institute
Dr. Wolfgang Feist, co-founder PHI, Katrin Katriberg, Director PHIUS