The All American 4-Square Goes Passive in MD

The Passive House movement finally has a good marketing tool. A Washington, D.C.-area house construction blog is helping make the über-green construction movement more accessible and attractive.

The Passive House, a stringent German energy-efficient building standard, faces plenty of challenges, starting with the name. Years of writing lessons make me flinch at the suggestion of a passive sentence, let alone an entire house of inactive passivity.

The Passive House is so named because passive solar energy is the main heat source rather than sexier, active renewable energy sources such as solar photovoltaic panels. Thorough insulation and virtually airtight construction help minimize heat losses. The result is a possible 90-percent reduction in heating costs through a 10-percent increase in construction bills.

The Passive House Institute web site lists all the standards and practices involved in overwhelming and inaccessible detail, and mostly showcases boxy, unusual home designs.

That’s where the D.C. blog comes in. It offers detailed but photo-intensive and digestible weekly updates on the construction of a classic-looking American Foursquare in residential Bethesda, Maryland. Construction began Aug. 23 on the building, which will the first certified Passive House in the Washington, D.C., area.

The site launched on Earth Day (of course) with a general announcement about the project, an architect’s rendering and a cost estimate of $225 per square foot for the project. However, it got interesting in late August with videos, photos and explanations of the home’s insulated footings and foundation walls.

I’m going to keep actively watching this passive house construction project — a free, fun months-long seminar on truly energy-efficient home building.

In other passive house news:

• This month, a Sonoma, Calif., home became and the first certified passive house retrofit in the United States, and California’s first certified passive house. The 1962 home now has an energy recovery ventilator and a small heat pump in place of the original radiant heat floors and electric baseboard heaters. Rick Milburn, owner of Solar Knights Construction, said working on his first passive house involved a steep learning curve, but it is not that complicated.

“I will say that this is the hardest house I have ever built, but everything from here on out will be easy,” he told Contractor Magazine. “In the climate that I work in, there is no reason that all new construction shouldn’t be built to the Passive House standard. It’s just not that hard.”

• Hamburg House is China’s first certified passive house and a major draw at the much-hyped World Expo in Shanghai.

• A newly certified passive house in Wisconsin hosts a public open house on Saturday, Sept. 18. If a family can survive a Wisconsin winter mainly using passive solar heat in their home, these passive house folks may really be on to something. Click here for more information on the tour.