Of the 4, the kindergarten was by far my favorite. It was a truly happy building built on a very modest budget. We walked the outside and inside and it made you wish you had gone to school here.

It’s hard to describe why the building felt so good. It all worked together: the light orange wood stain, the clay plaster walls, the perfectly sized tables and chairs for the little ones, plantings inside to bring up moisture levels, the living roof. It’s not just one feature, it’s that they all work together so well.
As you can see the living roof has solar panels that feed this wall heating system. For a “wood guy” like me, this building was perfect from it’s wood framed and dense pack cellulose TJI beam construction, to the clay walls with REAL reeds acting as lathe.
I made the trip to Dresden mostly to look for products that we don’t have available to us in the US. The fact that this building really did not use any structural material that we don’t have in our area was not lost on me. There is always a way…

New Certification display plaque available from PHI de. Dr Feist today displayed an ornamental plaque now available for certified projects. See attached Picture.

Also announced today was the International Passive House Association (IPHA). This is a new organization that is now staffed and operational. The staff is multi lingual and is charged with the translation and dissemination of all things PH that has so far been beyond our reach. The information that they are initially working on is 1, technical papers needing translation to english and 2, developing standard publications intended for public education to the worldwide consumer. This secondary effort is to help educate the general public. The idea is better consumer acceptance through better education.

“This policy sets forth the process and procedures in reviewing a recognized green certified building permit application.

Purpose: To provide a collaborative and expedited review of green certified building permits with a goal to promote development that seeks the greatest possible reduction in environmental impacts.

1.            Any reference to “green certified building permit application” means only such applications that have been certified through Built Green, LEED, NAHB, Passive House, and Energy Star programs

For more detail, or to suggest similar treatment to your planing department, please see the entire DRAFT Document.

Thanks to all for their work in “clearing the way” for others!
Green_Building_Permit_Policy

Topics covered will include ComfoSystems components, design & engineering principles, installation, and commissioning of balanced ventilation systems.

You’ll find the events on the PHnw calendar.

Anyone interested in attending should contact Zehnder America Inc.
Paula Bush: 888.778.6701
Barry Stephens: barry.stephens@zehnderamerica.com

Cheers,
Markus

Phase I – April 28-30
Phase II – June 10-12
Phase III – July 8-10

See the PHIUS website to register, or for more information:
www.passivehouse.us

Jim Burton

I did see that Second Use was in attendance.  I was eager to talk to  Carrie Ferrence, the Director of Business Development and give them a mention here. If you are not already familiar with Second Use, be sure to check out their website http://seconduse.com/ where you will find an abundance of resources to help you find salvaged building parts you might need or inspire you to a new project with others.  They also have a salvage operation that will remove salvageable resources from buildings.  There is so much use to be made of things we already have and it is great to find people making it as easy for us as Second Use.  Carrie can be reached at carrie@seconduse.com

Another vendor I was pleased to see was Th0mas Van Denend of Shelter Works Ltd.  His website called http://www.faswall.com/ is what caught my eye.  I had heard of this product before, but had never seen it in person.  Faswall is a block building system made of cement bonded wood fiber.  The blocks are lightweight and can be cut with a saw.  Mineral wool or poly-iso foam insulation can be added to the voids before they are filled with cement.  The R values are then R21-R25.5 and Tom said additional insulation could be added to the exterior if necessary to reach Passive House goals.  Mr Van Denend was very passionate about his product, especially the vapor permeability, and longevity of building with this type of building material.  Tom’s email is tomvd@faswall.com

I spoke with some alternative energy vendors while I was at the Home Show.  David Jennings of Rainier Renewable Energy called his business a “One Stop Shopping” for renewable energy and grey water systems.  He had a display of one of their geothermal systems which caught my eye and reminded me of Katrin’s earth tubes and that drew me to his booth.  In addition to Geothermal they also deal with Solar and Wind systems too.   Located in Seattle, his business should be familiar with the challenges that our environment has.  You can check out their website at http://www.rainierenergy.com/ and you can reach David at dave@rainier-energy.com

Another geo-thermal energy vendor I spoke with was John Farlow of Enertech Mfg.  He was quite intrigued with the low heating requirements that Passive Houses have and quickly pulled out his calculator to crunch numbers.  While we did not get into strict details of if his products would be a good fit for any particular Passive House project I found his eagerness to understand what we are doing as Passive House consultants encouraging.  If you are considering geothermal as a component of your project, you can check out Enertech Mfg to see if they might meet your needs.  Their website is http://enertechmfg.com/ You can reach John at jfarlow@enertechmfg.com

The last vendor I talked with before calling it a day was Glenn Maresca of Energy First Services.  They do solar hot water  and radiant heating systems.  Located in Woodinville, they too should be very familiar with our local climate.  Glenn pointed out that they use Sundasolar systems and likes the Onyx line system instead of PEX.  He recommends using radiators instead of infloor heating because there is less water to heat and circulate.  Sizing a hot water and heating system with their flat panel radiators should provide flexibility too.  You can see their website at http://liquidheating.com/index.php or reach Glenn at glenn@liquidheating.com

While none of these vendors were advertising as being specific for Passive House projects, I found each of them someone I might contact in the future if a project needed their product or service.

Don’t forget to register for our upcoming conference where we will have several vendors that will be geared towards PH construction.  Registration is currently $65 until March 12th and then it goes up to $85 until March 21st.  Registration on the day of the conference will be $125.

For directions go to: http://www.phinneycenter.org/

Dan will be discussing his passive house project which is coming along nicely. If you are in the area please stop in – Dan is great at describing his project. If you want a preview, click on the link to the video that is being made about the project then scroll down to see Dan http://www.thehousethatsavedtheworld.com/videoclips.html. Be sure to check out the other videos on that page that are being made as part of “The House That Saved The World” project too!

I hope to see you there!

-Linda

[reprinted from http://existingresources.wordpress.com]