As part of our continuing efforts to design and build using the most advanced health and environmental standards, StudioTroika visited the first passive home in Wayland, MA. This Pro Tour Series, put on by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA), brought together architects, designers, contractors and other building professionals to showcase an exemplary work of high performance building.
Beyond being Passive House (PH) certified, this house is completely spray foam free, an early design strategy that called for unique solutions to achieve PHIUS PH certification.
What is a passive home? Short and sweet, passive homes are the gold standard of energy consumption, comfort and health. Using a strategy of an air tight building envelope, super insulation, along with triple pane windows and doors, passive homes are typically able to heat and cool using 90% less energy than an average home. The catchphrase of the PH standard is ‘heat your home with a hair dryer.’ Beyond saving energy passive homes are typically a lot more comfortable than the average home. There are no drafts, no cold windows, and no leaky doors or attics. Passive homes don’t require large mechanical systems so there are no loud forced air sounds, and no major fluctuations between hot and cold all throughout the house. Because the envelope is super insulated with triple pane windows and doors outdoor noise pollution is practically eliminated. And say goodbye to ice dams!
The 4,400 SF Wayland Passive Home uses a 42,000 BTU heat pump for all its heating and cooling needs. For some perspective, a typical poorly insulated 600 SF turn of the century apartment requires at least a 55,000 BTU heater. For ventilation the house uses a balanced ventilation system which, at a low velocity, is constantly replacing stale air with fresh outdoor air. Using an integrated heat recovery unit, energy is transferred between the warm exhaust air and the cold fresh air (in winter, vice versa in the summer) with an efficiency rate around 90%. A common theme we heard repeated throughout the day was that the house smells like the surrounding woods, the meadows and the fields, but with the HEPA 12 filter, you don’t get any of the pollen, mites and particulates. Great for people with any type of respiratory illness and even better for those who don’t like dusting.
Thanks NESEA, Auburndale Builders and the whole team behind Wayland’s first Passive House! Check out some of the photos from the tour.
Thermally broken window sill
TROIKA 