Passive House is an incredible building standard for designing and certifying energy efficient buildings (homes, schools, hospitals, offices, etc.). Using the 5 green building techniques explained in this video, Passive Houses need only 10% of the energy that a conventional home uses (that’s a 90% energy saving!).

We met up with Alex and Sandra from BCIT’s High Performance Building Lab in Vancouver, Canada to learn about the different ways that a home can be built to use less energy. They’re pretty simple to understand and don’t cost much more than a typical new build:

– Highly insulated building envelope
– High performance triple glazed windows
– Elimination of thermal bridges
– Continuous air sealed layer
– Heat recovery ventilation

The building lab at BCIT is a really exciting new space where tradespeople can come to learn about green building techniques. To learn more, check out this link to their website:
www.bcit.ca/zeroenergybuildings

We want to say an extra special thank you to Sandra and Alex for taking time to show us how all of these building techniques worked (late into the evening!). We had a blast and learned so much!

Sandra Rohler
Passive House Instructor
BCIT High Performance Building Lab
Passive House Canada

Alexandre Hébert
Manager, Zero Energy Buildings, BCIT

Thanks for watching!

Mat & Danielle

Exploring Alternatives

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