Bldg-sim Digest, Vol 27, Issue 2

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If you consider the whole world and not just the US, your short list
should definitely include the Passive House Planning Package, which is
the only software which can be used to design Certified Passive House
projects, which meet the voluntary Passive House Standard
(www.passivehouse.com). This building envelope efficiency standard is
the toughest in the world, but its adoption is growing exponentially
(way more than 12,000) because it has the lowest lifecycle costs. In
Europe production builders have adopted it, mass producing these super
building envelopes as affordable housing and commercial projects, too.
It has revolutionized the building industry in Europe, both products,
and means & methods. We've yet to beat it - the first Passive House
entered in the Solar Decathlon on our National Mall won (2007), then in
2009 there were two Passive house entries, and they took 1st & 2nd
place. Time to join them.

In 2008, I was one of the first 13 Certified Passive House Consultants
trained in the USA (www.passivehouse.us). The PHPP software has the
advantage of being an Excel spreadsheet, which makes the formulas used
basically open source, unlike most energy modeling software created in
the USA. This really cuts down on the garbage in, garbage out phenomena.
I've used Equest, Energy Plus, Energy 10, and many smaller brands of
energy modeling, and PHPP is the only one I've found that is truly
designed to handle everything one might want to do in an ultra-low
energy building. The certification process for consultants and buildings
is also the most rigorous I've ever encountered - leaves LEED in the
dust. The annual conference is the most intensive state-of-the-art
building science learning experience you'll find.

Christina Snyder

Christina A. Snyder's picture
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Dear Christina,

Fair point about PhPP and Passivhaus being a very good design philosophy
that will work particularly well in temperate or colder climates (still not
entirely convinced that it would work well in hot humid climates), but I
would just pick you up on the fact that the PHPP tool uses Excel. This
clearly means it isn't actually a building simulation tool, it is merely a
set of calculations. Granted they are based on simulations and empirical
data which have been rigorously tested, but they are not by their very
nature dynamic at all. Judging on the previous question from Fareed to
which this discussion was based, it was looking for advise on complex
simulation tools capable of very complex dynamic systems analysis. Sorry,
I'm not trying to being antagonistic here, just being a little anal perhaps.

Actually, I do like the Passivhaus approach of very well insulated buildings
with minimal heating/cooling and energy usage as that in my own view is a
good starting point, though personally I have an issue with something
calling itself passive when it essentially stipulates a requirement for
mechanical ventilation albeit super efficient ventilation systems with heat
recovery, etc. That is not passive, it is active therefore slightly
misleading in my own view. I recall (though where from I can't remember)
that there were some problems with a case of a truly passivehouse being
litigated against because it advertised itself as a passivehouse yet wasn't
passivhaus certified because of the lack of active systems, a slightly odd
approach situation to me.

Saying that, we recently carried out the dynamic simulations of the first
office block in the UK, fully built to the passivhaus standards and as you'd
expect, it is a very efficient building and therefore the approach has merit
in a much wider global context so it something people should consider,
particularly at concept/schematic design stages.

Kind Regards

Dr Paul Carey

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