S p e c i a l F e a t u r e
C O N S T R U C T I O N + G R E E N B U S I N E S S
G
reen building in B.C. is nothing
new, but a standard and
certi‹cation that was developed
in Europe called Passivhaus
(Passive house) has all the
earmarks of becoming more
prevalent on the West Coast.
Passive house is a rigorous, voluntary
standard for residential ener•y ežciency
that results in buildings that require little
ener•y for space heating or cooling.
For a building to be considered a Passive
house, the space heating ener•y demand
must not exceed 15 kilowatts of usage per
square metre per annum (compared to
a typical home that uses 100 kilowatts
per square metre, due mainly to heating
escaping through window systems). The
total ener•y to be used for all domestic
applications must not exceed 120 kWh
per square metre per year, and thermal
comfort must be met for all living areas
during winter as well as in summer, with
not more than 10 per cent of the hours in a
given year over 25 °C.
About 25,000 Passivhaus-certi‹ed
structures exist in Europe; by contrast,
less than a dozen exist in B.C. But David
Kominek, architectural technologist
and trained Passive house designer for
DRKdesign, says more homes of this type
may be built in Vancouver. "The cost
di•erence between them and traditional
homes is as low as 10 per cent because of
the elimination of elaborate
HVAC in favour
of a super-ežcient building envelope and
solar heat gains," he says.
Because the cost of "going green" in
this fashion is not exorbitant, the City
of Vancouver—which also wants to be
known as the greenest city in the world by
2020—has adjusted building certi‹cation
requirements and is mulling over various
Passive house projects, including an
Green Prints
The West Coast welcomes a new
standard for ener•y-ef£icient
residential structures
Award Winning Quality,
Safety, Ethics & Integrity
since 1944
houle.ca
604.434.2681
apartment building.
Another reason Passive
housing may become
more popular is that, like
LEED, homes could be
built to Passive housing
standards rather than
being Passivhaus-certi‹ed.
"That way, Passive house principles would
be more accessible to developers," says
Kominek.
Kominek, whose ‹rm designed a Passive
house on Gabriola Island that is nearing
construction completion, is hopeful this
ener•y-savings standard will become as
familiar to B.C. developers as it is in Europe.
"There's de‹nitely an interest within the
community, it's just that there's a reluctance
to take it to the documentation level," he
says. "Perhaps that reluctance will subside
as the standards become better-known."
A rendering of DRKdesign's
Passivhaus on Gabriola Island