Colorado Passive House LLC

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Colorado Passive House has several pre-designed residential plans available to provide to your architect or builder that have already been modeled in the Passive House Energy Model, PHPP. Most Custom House plans can also be modeled and adapted to meet the Passive House standard. Colorado Passive House is located in Colorado Springs.

What is Passive House ?

Passive House is a set of design principles for attaining a rigorous level of energy efficiency while also creating comfortable indoor living spaces. There are five basic principles of Passive House:

1. Employs continuous insulation. Continuous insulation throughout the entire building enclosure helps to reduce a buildings heating and cooling needs and improves comfort.

2. Minimization of thermal bridging. Thoughtful, thermal-bridge-free enclosure design eliminates "cold corners," minimizes risk of mold growth on the interior, and improves comfort.

3. Creates an extremely airtight building envelope, preventing infiltration of outside air and loss of conditioned air. Airtightness is a cornerstone to passive building design for both durability of the enclosure as well as energy savings achieved by minimizing infiltration of outside air and loss of conditioned air.

4. Employs high-performance triple paned windows and insulated doors. Solar gain is managed to exploit the sun's energy for heating purposes in the heating season and to minimize overheating during the cooling season.

5. Uses balanced heat and moisture-recovery ventilation through the use of an Energy Recovery Ventilator that continuously provides fresh outdoor air while at the same time transferring the indoor heat to the intake outdoor air via an air-air heat exchange

benefits of Passive House

Unmatched Comfort: Superinsulation and airtight construction means you're always comfortable, no matter the weather outside. Constant indoor air temperature and elimination of drafts and cold surfaces provides an unmatched comfort level in Passive House.

A Healthy Environment: Breathe continuously ventilated, filtered outdoor air. Indoor humidity is controlled and maintained through the Energy Recovery Ventilator. A benefit that may not be fully appreciated until experienced.

Peaceful, Quiet Spaces: Being in a Passive House is like driving in a luxury vehicle, outside noise is nearly non-existent.

Energy Efficient and Best Route to Net Zero: Passive building principles offer to best path to net zero because they are built correctly from the start, reducing the renewables load. A Passive House is designed to use 80 to 90 percent less heating and cooling energy than a typical code compliant home.

Our Team

Doug Foster is General Manager of Colorado Passive House, LLC. He is a Professional Engineer, licensed in Colorado, and a Certified Passive House Builder by the Passive House Institute US (PHIUS), as well as a Passive House Designer issued by Passive House Network (PHN). He is a graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder with a BS in Architectural Engineering. He brings over forty years of experience in the design and construction industries.