This February before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, HKP Architects saw their 13.3kW solar photovoltaic system get installed by Western Solar. The system was financed through a low-interest loan, federal tax credits, USDA REAP grant, sales tax credits, net-metering, year-one depreciation, and discount for participating in the Solarize program. HKP made other energy-savings inside like an […]

Catholic Housing Services is planning a 65-unit apartment building in Everett to serve chronic homeless people.  The project is utilizing the state’s Ultra-High efficiency Demonstration Program to fund some of the net-zero strategies.  High-efficiency design, is a critical component of saving annual utility costs for the new homeowners, but it is often not possible given […]

A new solar roofing product designed by Forward Labs has the potential to generate comparable amounts of electricity as traditional solar panels, but with the advantage of looking like a traditional metal roof.  See the YouTube video.  It comes in several colors and can be integrated in the architecture without looking like solar panels. Integrating solar […]

Photograph by Diane Padys According to an article published in the Daily Journal of Commerce on September 8, 2016, homes with “green” features sold for 7.2% more than homes that don’t have green features.  The brokerage firm Redfin looked at homes in 83 metropolitan areas and found “green” homes sold for about $34,000 more on average. The home […]

50 Unit Affordable Housing Project to be PHIUS Certified. Affordable housing will be even more affordable for the residents of Twin Lakes Landing in Marysville because their energy bills will be so low.

Air Tight, Super Insulated Pet Freedom If your cat door is like ours, you can see the heating $$ leaking out during the winter. Pet doors are notorious for leaking air. For example a typical dog door leakage was 19 cfm/sf, which is a lot! This causes a challenge for meeting the Passive House standard […]

DWELL Article highlights affordable housing projects that meet the Passive House standards. We’re seeing more and more multifamily projects that are Passive House certified.

Check out the Gizmodo posting from this week on Passive House by following this link.  The infrared image above shows the impact that the high quality construction of Passive House has on reducing heat loss. The author of the Gizmodo article also refers to a New York Times article from 2013.  Follow this link to see the […]

Russ Weiser (HKP architects) will present a paper along with Julie Kriegh (Kriegh Architects) and Mike Fowler (Mithun architects) on how to reduce the barriers to adoption of Passive House Certification for buildings. It’s such a good idea, everyone should be able to do it.  See the link for the event schedule and more information on PHnw6 Conference […]

Make plans early for what promises to be the best Passive House Conference ever next fall.

Authors Julie Kriegh (Kriegh Architects), Mike Fowler (Mithun Architects) and Russ Weiser (HKP architects) will be presenting a study at the upcoming Passive House Northwest Conference in Seattle on March 27th, 2015.

The Passive House Concept is spreading from residential to commercial projects in the U.S. and in Europe.  Follow this link to the greenbuild 2014 report from BUILDING DESIGN + CONSTRUCTION that describes the largest Passive House Building in the U.S. to date, and the first Hospital to be Passive House certified in Germany.  Commercial building […]

This small and efficient house in Wisconsin is typical of Passive House projects in how comfortable they are even in the coldest weather. Check out the slideshow. This is just one possibility for the comfort, health benefits and efficiency of building a Passive House. Well worth the investment.

This from Passive House NYC: Join New York Passive House activists on September 21st for the People’s Climate March. Friends, This is our moment to change everything. But we need everyone. We have just one month to turn the People’s Climate March in our home of New York City into the biggest march against climate […]

Passive House Certified buildings have the potential for significant energy savings.  This aligns with the goals of many local energy utilities.  So we consulted with our local utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and found out they have several programs that could provide incentives for Passive House qualified projects, both commercial and residential. On the residential side, […]

As you may have already heard in recent climate reports for the U.S. and the World, climate change is happening even faster than scientists expected. Below is an image of what 12 feet of sea level rise might look like in Washington DC. See the website for images of what 12 feet of sea level […]

I attended the Passive House Northwest Annual conference in Portland, Oregon on March 27th and 28th. This was a great opportunity to learn more about the latest advances in healthy, comfortable and efficient Passive House Certified projects from all around the world.  After the conference I toured several Passive House projects in Portland and heard […]

Some call the “Secret Sauce” for Passive House the stringent air sealing. Heat losses through cracks and gaps have been reported to reduce energy efficiency up to 30%. By meeting the air-tight level of a Passive House of 0.6 Air changes per hour the health of the occupants is also improved because air leakage leads […]