Description

Passive House is increasingly written into policy and incentive programs, but comparing it directly to standard codes has been difficult — each uses different software, assumptions, and floor-area conventions. This study fixes that. The same 31-unit, four-story apartment building was modeled under 2021 IECC, ASHRAE 90.1-2016 and 2019 Appendix G, PHI Classic, PHI Low Energy Building, and Phius 2024 Core, across climate zones 1 through 7, with every result normalized to a common basis. 

Passive House scenarios, from Honolulu to Duluth, showed a two- to four-and-a-half-fold improvement in heating and cooling demand and total energy from the baseline approaches. The study then translated Passive House inputs into EnergyPlus and found the performance holds up across software engines. 

Marine Sanchez (RDH Building Science), the report’s author, presents the findings, the translation workflow behind them, and what they mean for accepting Passive House as an alternative compliance pathway. PHN’s Policy Director, Bronwyn Barry, will lead a discussion of the report with Marine and the audience. 

Read more and register here...