What makes a house a passive house?
A passive house is a voluntary set of building standards that aim to create houses and other structures that are comfortable and healthy yet consume very little energy. This is achieved via five principles: continuous insulation, airtight construction, optimized windows, balanced ventilation, and minimal mechanical.
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Shorts in the winter, and a negative electricity bill –– it sounds like the land of milk and honey.
In reality, it’s Boston. That’s at least for the owners of the city’s first certified passive houses.
Since spec developer Dmitry Baskin completed the three spec homes, the buyers say they’ve hardly touched the thermostat, and the buildings operate so efficiently that the city owes at least one couple money, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Baskin, who heads Boston-based Passive House Construction, partnered with Eric Robinson and Kevin Deabler’s Rode Architects to develop three single-family homes built to passive house standards. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom houses, at 55, 59 and 63 Brucewood Street, received their passive house certification from the CertiPHIers Cooperative after finishing construction last year.
All three homes have solar panels installed, and use airtight construction and shading to maintain the internal climate. The houses eschew traditional heating and cooling systems in favor of small heat pumps and an energy recovery ventilation that circulates fresh air, according to the publication.
The green technology means the homes operate extremely efficiently, providing huge reductions for the owners’ energy consumption and the utility bills that typically accompany them.
“This winter it got freezing, and we were in our shorts,” Amod Athavale, one of the homeowners, told the outlet. Athavale bought a 2,500-square-foot passive spec home with his wife, Manasi Datar, for $1.4 million last year. Despite this summer of record heat, the couple…