Healthy Home vs. Wellness Home: Why Building Science Matters In today’s housing market, “wellness” has become a popular buzzword. You’ll see homes marketed with yoga studios, meditation rooms, spa bathrooms, and indoor gardens—all designed to support a better lifestyle. While those features can enhance your daily experience, they often miss a critical point: A home […]
Buyers expect more than the basics. Here’s how builders are boosting energy efficiency where it counts. By Joel Hoekstra July 31, 2025 Energy efficiency has become a baseline demand among homebuyers. Owners want spaces that aren’t only eye-catching but also lower energy bills and offer resilience amid power outages and extreme weather. For residential builders, this […]
Passive House is a building standard that emphasizes better wall construction, a tight building envelope, and great HVAC systems. Homes built to this standard are, quite simply, better homes. They are quieter, promote the health of their occupants, and cost less to heat and cool. They are built to the highest energy-saving standards in the […]
PH homes are 5-10% more expensive to build than a conventional code home, for a number of reasons related to increased material and labor costs. First, PH walls are typically thicker than a standard wall in a U.S. home, requiring more lumber and, hence, more insulation. Second, PH homes use a higher quality window and […]
Yes, they can. A Passive House by definition doesn’t really require windows that open, as there is a fresh air system in the home that is constantly bringing fresh filtered air in, often at a rate of three volume changes of the house per hour. This allows the fresh air that does come into the […]
Window ratings are important. Choose the right window for your home. In Nashville, TN, your baseline will be a window with low U-factor (0.27-ish) and a low to moderate SHGC (0.35-ish), depending on your house design. Got lots of shade? Go for a larger SHGC. Windows come in a vast variety of price and […]
You can use roof overhang to govern how much sun gets into your home throughout the year. This will greatly affect how much you have to spend on heating and cooling. In the absence of scale drawings, use a little trig to calculate how big your overhangs should be. One of the keys to […]
Safe rooms come in many varieties, from tiny steel tornado vaults dug into the ground to full-featured panic rooms with tunnels leading to multiple bedrooms. Let’s design the one that’s right for you. You already know what a safe room is: a room to keep you and your family safe in an emergency. Generally, […]
ACH50 is a measurement that looks at the number of air volume changes per hour in a home. Currently, this is measured and tested using an apparatus and methodology collectively called a blower-door test. Simply put, the tester installs a temporary plastic front door that contains a large fan. The fan depressurizes the house to […]
Yes, absolutely. Passive House standards can be applied to a wide range of housing types, including both single-family and multi-family housing. Just as there are strict criteria for single-family houses to be considered a certified PH, mutli-famiy can also be designated as a certified PH project by the Passive House Institute of the U.S. (PHIUS). […]