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Passive House Design - A Worthy Project

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Passive House - A Building Revolution Documentary

This morning, I'd like to offer up a slightly different post on Mapawatt.  We usually focus on content that helps our readers to improve their efficiency, sustainability and to save money.  Today, I'd like to offer up an opportunity for our readers to help others through supporting what I believe to be a worthy project.  Passive Home Design.

A non-profit organization in Ohio has put together a documentary that introduces super-efficient home design to US homeowners and builders.  It uses concepts provided by the Passivehaus Institut project from Europe.  (Sweden and Germany to be specific)  In a nutshell, they describe concepts to save energy by building some of the following features into new and existing homes:

  1. Super-insulated Building Envelope - Seal and insulate homes with more than three times the insulation of a typical American home.  This helps maintain a comfortable interior environment.
  2. Heat/Energy Recovery Ventilators - Control the air circulation in and out of the house through ventilators that keep energy from leaving or entering the envelope.  They also help with moisture control.
  3. Hyper-efficient Climate Control Systems - By introducing super-efficient building methodologies, homes can reduce the need for traditional climate control systems and save 80-90% of the energy needs of a home.

The non-profit has started a kickstarter campaign to raise money to finish production of the documentary and help fund promotion of the video.  This post is to inform our readers about this initiative and to provide some ways for you to get involved.

  1. Spread the word with your colleagues, friends and family that are interested in residential energy efficiency and saving money in their homes.
  2. Share this post through your social media outlets to help promote the project.  (you can use the icons at the bottom of this post to share)
  3. Consider contributing to the kickstarter project.  There are lots of levels for contribution that include a free copy of the video, t-shirts and more.

I hope you will consider how you can help the Passive House - A Building Revolution documentary.  We believe it is a worthy project and can help you get involved in spreading the Residential Energy Efficiency word!  This is a short 30 day campaign so act now to help them achieve their goal.

Passive House - A Building Revolution Kickstarter Project

UPDATE 12/11/2012 - This project reached its funding goal today and the film will go into final editing with a release date in February 2013!  Thanks to everyone who contributed!  Mapawatt will receive a DVD in February and will provide a review of the documentary as soon as possible.

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Comments

Hi Megg, You are exactly right. Most of Passivhaus builds on what we "used to know" about building energy efficient structures. I say it builds on it because we're taking concepts from as far back as ancient civilization and using technology and innovation to improve on those concepts. Things like high tech energy and heat recovery ventilators that build on what was done with ventilation using convection and passive solar, etc. in the distant past. I totally agree with the quality comment. If we combine super-efficient design with the idea of building a structure that will last for hundreds of years, we will be where we need to be for planning for the future. -Powell
It's pretty amazing that this is somehow a "new" concept for the world...again. Having traveled much through Europe, you come to notice that even the apartments (let alone the houses) frequently don't have heating and AC units, and it's because they're WELL-BUILT. Obviously it may cost more at start-up, but the savings are amazing. Of course, this also contributes to the fact that many centuries-old buildings in Europe are still standing. Why is it so hard for people to take the long-term view? Houses should be well-built. Period.

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