Passively Designed, not Passive House
The distinction between a passively designed home (sometimes called passive solar design) and a passive certified house can be confusing, read on to explore the difference between the two using a bad hockey analogy and hear why we never aspired for Booken House to be a certified passive house.
Our house is passively designed, however, it’s not a certified passive house.
Wait… whaaaat?
Well, our home has been designed to incorporate inexpensive passive principles that make use of what Mother Nature provides for free - such as the sun and cooling breezes - to minimise bills, keep our home comfy all year round, reduce our impact on the planet and improve our lifestyle.
These passive design principles are based on simple science and include inexpensive (or free) concepts such as orientation, cross ventilation, thermal mass, zoning, shading and insulation (you can learn how to incorporate these principles in your own build by downloading our free Sustainable Build Checklist).
However, as incredible as it is to live in a home designed this way, you can always do more.
North glazing capturing winter sun
In the world of sustainable design, I liken our home to playing hockey for our local squad.
Now, we all know there is great value in playing at this level, HOWEVER, we also know it's not the Olympics - and that's ok - because the Olympics are not accessible to everyone.
Some people are however lucky enough to play in the Olympics of passive design.
I would have loved to.
Certified passive homes are the Olympics, they are technical, smart, and usually gorgeous in an architectural way, and I admire people who go down this path because the more people that play at this elite level of house design, the better.
Certified passive homes take passive design to a new level; they include extra layers of complexity and expense, such as air tightness and balanced ventilation and recovery systems.
They also have to prove they meet a set of strict criteria for performance.
The way you live in a passive certified home also differs to the way you live in a home that’s been passively designed; for example, they will require less active management and are often shut off from the outdoors to maintain narrow internal temperatures.
But as fabulous as passive certified homes are, we also need to remember there is honour in playing for the local team.
A certified passive house will likely perform better than our house (it’s the Olympics remember), however, Booken House performs great, like really really great.
Many moons ago, when I started learning about sustainable design I felt excited about the potential for passive design to change the building and design industry forever, and quite frankly, I couldn’t understand why everyone wasn’t rushing out and building their homes using these simple, powerful principles.
However, I soon discovered good design can be very difficult to access for the average bear, and therefore we miss the opportunity to incorporate smart, inexpensive principles into our new builds due to perceived complexity and lack of affordability.
Because let’s face it, when you are neck-deep planning a build or reno it’s a freakin' overwhelming time (or is that just me?), so it’s easier not to pick up our stick and ball in the first place.
The way I see it, passive design needs a new PR guy, it’s gotten tangled up in a niche with some bad dudes like elitism and inaccessibility, and it’s time to break up the party.
It’s ok to ‘Do what we can, where we are, with what we have.’
Because if we all just line up for the local team of passive design, that is, do simple things like orientate our homes better, add a bit more insulation, include some shading... then collectively, we make a huge difference.
And that’s how real change occurs.
Oh, and sorry... I might have got a bit carried away with my hockey analogies.
