There is a set of criteria in place that buildings must meet. Such criteria ensure that buildings comply with the world’s leading standard in energy efficient construction.

Among others, the points below highlight the criteria of a passive house:

• Space Heating Demand: the building’s space heating demand should not exceed 12kWh yearly per square meter of the living space or 10W of peak demand.
• Space Cooling Demand: This demand should be equal to the space heating demand with variations that accommodate or allow for dehumidification
• Energy Demand: the primary energy demand should not exceed 120kWh yearly for all the appliances. These include hot water, cooling, heating, and electricity.
• Comfort: the house must be too comfortable for tenants.
• Airtightness: this is one of the important features of a passive house. There must be pressure gauges installed to monitor the air pressure at 50 Pascals.

To ensure that these criteria are met, our engineers can work with you from the design to the construction. Meeting these criteria can be challenging to an inexperienced homeowner, and so ATC Designers can come to your rescue when the need arises. It involves performing complex energy modeling calculations, air-tightening the envelope, integrating energy efficient appliances, including uniquely designed windows and doors, and many more passive house components. Passive houses are generally planned, optimized and verified with the Passive House Planning Package.   

Planning Process For A Passive House Certified Design

Most of the work is done in the planning process. Because passive house criteria are complex, homeowners are advised to consider certified passive house designers whom they can entrust with the planning process. Such effort simplifies the certification process after constructing the building.

ATC Designers technicians are undoubtedly the best and experts in this field of planning. We walk with you every step of the day in ensuring that the design is fully compliant with the criteria. Passive House Institute also offers consulting services for passive house planning and implementation. Why opt for such a long route while you can entrust ATC Designers with the task?

In our consulting services, we do the following, among others:

• Prepare energy balance calculations using the PHPP
• Assist you with the conceptual design and how to implement it
• Jot down the criteria to meet in our planning process
• Prepare a sheet with quality building components you should get in order to achieve a certain passive house standard
• Help you select relevant construction materials/products that are compliant with passive house certification
• Advise you about cost-effective building solutions
• Quality control and monitoring on your constructions to ensure that the construction team stick to the design
• Help with thermal bridge calculations
• Simulate thermal protection in inclement climatic conditions
• Simulate interior insulation
• Help you manage the construction through our construction administration services

We can provide more services customized to a client. When you involve us in the beginning, you eliminate problems that would otherwise happen before the construction starts. We will review all the planning documents and technical data on construction. If need be, we will recommend changes in order to comply with the criteria set for passive house certification. Our engineers are highly experienced in these design specifications and so we assure you the best service.    

Since we have promised to walk with you every step of the way, there is no need to worry about submitting the documents online to the Passive House Institute. We can do that as well.