FAQs

Q. What is Passive House technology?

It’s a rigorous, performance-based building method that reduces energy needs of a building and increases the amount of fresh air circulating inside that building. The buildings are designed using models that incorporate regional weather data so that they are built to withstand conditions specific to that area. The result are buildings that are more resilient and less costly to own.

Q. Why This Building Standard And Not Some Other One?

What is Passive House technology? It’s a rigorous, performance-based building method that reduces the energy needs of a building and increases the amount of fresh air circulating inside that building. The buildings use an air-tight building envelope, high performance windows and a heat recovery air exchanger to produce buildings with a superior environment and significantly lower energy requirements. The buildings also incorporate regional weather data in the design phase so that they are built to withstand conditions specific to that area. The result is buildings that are more resilient and less costly to own.

This building standard is superior to others for a number of reasons.

• The technology is established and proven to be effective.

• It’s rigorous, performance-based and supported by science.

• It allows for ongoing evaluation and third party validation.

• The buildings are designed using climate data specific to the region.

• The United Nations is currently developing global building guidelines and is basing those guidelines on Passive House principles. (See Appendix A)

• It is endorsed by building scientists and the U.S. Department Of Energy

• Organizations in China, Canada, Europe and Japan have adopted the standard and are advocating for it within those countries.

Q. Why is this the best approach?

A. There are three ways to influence a decision: policy change, financial incentives and behavior change. Although circumstances call for the deployment of all three, policy on a large scale is too slow and financial incentives on a large scale are too expensive to shift the entire market. Only behavior change can do what is necessary in the current environment and with existing resources.

Q. What are the available climate solutions? 

A. Erase40 is focussed on the 40% of global emissions that come from buildings. However, it’s important that we pursue all of the available solutions at once. This article gives a very good overview of the other climate solutions available to us now.