My partner and I are geeks. Our idea of a romantic dream was to build a house so well insulated you could heat it with a hairdryer. For added fun, we wanted to do this on a tight budget while raising a young child.
The hairdryer part wasn?t a pipe dream ? it?s a common way of describing the Passive House standard, which is the building code in much of Germany where it originates. It?s also mandatory for new construction in many European cities. Yet, even though it costs only about 5 percent more than a conventional house, there are just a handful of Passive Houses in Canada, where winter doesn?t appear to be a passing trend.
These were the kinds of facts I used to recite when people looked at me quizzically; the term ?Passive House,? without further explanation, seems to make people visualize a house that will fall down if you punch it. Others confuse it with ?passive solar? houses from the 1970s, which often had too many windows, causing wild temperature swings from day to night. ?There?s no good reason,? I used to say, ?why we don?t build more Passive Houses in this country.? I assumed it was just Canadian denial of our climate; we like to wear thin jackets and complain about the weather. Are we this way with our permanent shelters too"
There are indeed no good reasons. But there are reasons.
Inside Ann Cavlovic’s completed home. Photo by Mark Rosen.
We initially thought ourselves lucky to meet an engineer with impressive Passive House credentials. After months...