What is Passive House?
Passive House is a stringent building standard focused on maximizing energy efficiency. It is a voluntary international building standard developed by the Passive House Institute (PHI), located in Darmstadt, Germany.
What is the Passive House Standard?
The PH Standard contains several performance requirements for new building construction and a similar standard for the retrofit of existing buildings. Passive House performance represents approximately 90% reduction in heating and cooling energy use and up to a 75% reduction in primary energy use from existing buildings. Passive House design was created to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment and lower energy usage.
The Passive House standard also promotes building designs with comfort, safety and health for the occupants who reside and or work inside. The PH Standard is meant to lower energy usage and provide a safe, comfortable building/structure. Simply put, Passive Houses are the most comfortable buildings on earth.
When designing a Passive House, it is important to focus on minimizing heating and cooling loads through passive measures like building orientation, massing, insulation, heat recovery, passive use of solar energy, solar shading, high performance windows, elimination of thermal bridges, and incidental internal heat sources. Because the building will be airtight, a low volume continuous supply of filtered fresh air is supplied to interior spaces and stale air is simultaneously removed – providing balanced and controlled ventilation with high-efficiency heat exchange.
A Passive House can be any type of building: a townhome, condominium, apartment building, multi-use building, office building, manufacturing plant, home or school. Regardless of usage, all these high performance buildings possess the following qualities:
Deliver fresh, high quality indoor air free of contaminates.
Very comfortable and consistent temperatures.
Require up to 90% less energy usage for heating and cooling demands from average existing buildings.
A7 Series
Our Passive House windows and doors deliver superior performance for these types of exceptional projects. The A7 Series was specifically designed to meet the rigorous PH building standard. Triple pane glazing units are encompassed within a thermally broken aluminum frame featuring a continuous layer of insulation, multiple air seals, and a durable powder-coated finish of the windows for exceptional scratchproof resistance. European hardware delivers smooth operation and modern style. The A7 Series delivers the high performance required for Passive House certification without sacrificing aesthetic sophistication and style.
Experience
Our team is passionate about the buildings we work in, the Montana environment we play in, and being a part of the Missoula community. We are experts in energy and environmental construction practices with a long history in the building industry. Our experience as green building contractors (a combined 100 years of problem-solving in construction projects) and our strong belief in protecting the natural world have created a priority our make buildings more comfortable, healthy, beautiful, efficient, and durable, as well as provide you the experience you need when ordering windows for your home or building.
Certified Consultants
Tom Hellem, CPHC, has been a PHIUS Certified Passive House Consultant since 2009, making him one of the first Montanans to achieve the credential. Early adoption of this stringent building standard makes him the ideal specialist for you and your Passive House project.
Our team are experts in energy and environmental construction practices with a long history in the building industry. We are passionate about helping our clients meet and exceed their goals by combining beautiful design and energy efficient construction. We offer unique and specialized expertise in residential and commercial construction and have experience working on net zero Passive Houses, LEED Certified buildings, and Living Building Challenge projects. We believe that your building is unique and understand that each project has specific goals. Glo European Windows are designed with that in mind.
is a certification mark of Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) used under license.
The Passive House Building Energy Standard is the most rigorous building energy standard in the world. Certified Passive House Consultants who have obtained the right through PHIUS to carry the logo, have committed themselves to design excellence and the Passive House energy performance and quality criteria.