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Ventilation Workshop with UltimateAir

Jason Morosko, the VP of Engineering with UltimateAir will be holding a Ventilation Training Workshop on Monday, March 29th 2010, in Bellevue, WA. UltimateAir is the maker of the RecoupAerator, currently the only domestically produced ERV that meets the Passive House performance requirements. Jason presented at last year’s North American Passive House Conference and has participated in Passive House Consultant training sessions.

The presentation will cover indoor air quality and whole house ventilation issues and strategies as appropriate for Passive House and other high-performance buildings, and will be aimed at builders, remodelers, architects, HVAC distributors & installers, energy program administrators & technicians, and interested homeowners.

Monday, March 29th, 2010 from 1 pm – 5 pm
The Embassy Suites Hotel , 3225 158th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA.
Coffee, Tea & Snacks will be served.

Attendance is free, but space is limited. You can register by contacting:
Craig Kinzelman at 800.535.3448, ckinzelman@stirling-tech.com or
Jonathan Campbell at 360.705.2868, jonathan@evergreen-depot.com

2010 02 11 admin PH Components
PH Events
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Product talk: Zehnder America Comfosystems with HRV

Barry Stephens of  Zehnder America visited Seattle recently and gave a presentation on the company history and their products.  Of particular interest to the Passive House consultants in attendance was the discussion of the Comfosystems with HRV.  It has a manufacturers efficiency of 90% heat recovery (PH in Europe Certification of 84%) and an option for geothermal heat exchange as well for ground source pre-heat and pre-cooling.  The unit does have an automatic defrost with an option for a pre-heater and a bypass for nighttime cooling in the summertime.

The in-floor flexible tubes are designed by Zehnder and are smooth walled inside, but flexible on the outside.   This allows for ease of installation without a lot of additional elbow fittings.  The molded high-density polyethylene (HDPE) tubes are capable of 45-90deg bends.  Most runs are installed as “home runs” (directly from the junction box to the vent location in the home) and this helps to reduce noise, though noise attenuators are recommended.

Maintenance on the system is to regularly replace the duct filters (currently MERV 7, with a possible increase to MERV 10 – more than that can affect the efficiency).  The heat exchanger core can be easily removed and cleaned with water.  An access door on the manifold allows for convenient access to clean the ducts.

The system had an interesting “in register” balancing system that looks like a whole lot of coffee stir sticks bundled together.  The unit comes with 4 different sized washers so that the flow can be restricted as needed.  If additional balancing is necessary once the individual registers are adjusted, the programmable controller allows for fine tuning the system.

Currently the plug-in 220V system is not UL approved, but they are actively seeking UL-CSA approval at this time.  In Portland, OR the system did get approved for use through their alternate code review.  The system, with an expected lifetime of about 20 years, comes with an 18month warranty.

For additional information on the Comfosystem HRV you can visit http://www.comfosystems.com/Home,9.html (which is not specific to the US and not all options are available here) or email  barry.stephens@zehnderamerica.com

2010 02 08 Linda Whaley PH Components Comments (1) Permalink

The House That Saved the World

The House That Saved the World (www.thehousethatsavedtheworld.com) is following the course of Dan Whitmore’s Courtland Place project, the first Passive House in Seattle.

The House That Saved the World is a project to document the design, permitting and construction of Deep Green Homes. It will, in their words, “explore the challenges and triumphs of Eco-Builders who are breaking ground” for cutting -edge sustainable houses. Video cameras will record the process step by step, narrated by the builders, designers, consultants and homeowners who are making it happen. We hope to see this on PBS someday!

To watch a video clip of Dan’s project, go to:

http://www.mikeboydstun.tv/TheHouseThatSavedTheWorld.com/DanWhitmoreExcavation.wmv

2010 02 08 Jim Burton PH Buildings Comments Off Permalink

Seafoam Green? No, See – Foam Green!

Open Cell Foam (image in the public domain)

The latest Eco-Building Guild discussion topic was on Spray Polyurethane Foam insulation, and boy did it get indepth!  I took notes as fast as I could and I hope to do justice to what Jim Walker, Ben Cook, & George Ostrow presented.  The focus was on 2 part spray in place foam, though there was also some discussion on the rigid foam boards and one part canned foam.

To start with, the foam can be open cell or closed cell.  I hunted around and found a few pictures that will help us understand just what we are talking about.  The picture on the left is of open cell foam.  It is clear to see where the cells have broken open, allowing the expansion gas to escape and air to enter them.
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2010 01 28 Linda Whaley Building Materials Comments (5) Permalink

Passive House Seattle Group Meetings

The Seattle Passive House Group will be getting off the ground in 2010 with monthly meetings in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood. For graduates of the Passive House Consultant Trainings, or anyone interested in learning more about the Passive House standard, we’ll meet at Herkimer Coffee, 7320 Greenwood Avenue North, at 5:30 pm on the fourth Wednesday of each month, today (sorry for the late notice!), January 27th. As you may notice, these are immediately before the NW Eco-Building Guild monthly meetings. Hope to see you there!!!

Jim Burton
206.501.8746

2010 01 27 Jim Burton PH Events Comments (1) Permalink

2010 International Builders’ Show (Jan. 19th through 22nd)

Having just returned from the IBS, I thought I would share the few interesting grains of PH relevant products and materials that I was able to separate from endless rows of “chaff”.  Attendance this year was down to ~55,000, roughly half of that from just a few years ago, and the number of exhibitors appeared to be at ~60% of past levels as well.

In an endless quest to source rigid foam alternatives, I first stopped in at the Roxul® booth to see if any progress was being made on the availability of RockBoard® (rigid mineral wool board) in the NW, and although the representative was aware of the difficulty (and therefore expense) in sourcing their rigid line of products, he didn’t have any immediate solutions.  I am supposed to be hearing from a representative in the very near future.

A cool and unexpected find was that of Steico AG, a German manufacturer of natural fiber insulation products (mostly hemp and wood fiber) in both flexible cavity and tongue and groove rigid board formulations.  They currently have product distribution in Canada, and were at the IBS to gauge U.S. interest in their products.  The head representative was very interested in future relations with the U.S. Passive House community.

Another show highlight for me was the unveiling of the new all-in-one heat-pump water heater from AirGenerate™.  Unlike their AirTap™ unit (which helped team Illinois secure first place and a perfect 100.00 in the hot water contest portion of the Solar Decathlon) the newest unit is a fully integrated storage tank and heat pump, looking very similar to GE’s® new heat pump offering.  Function wise however, the new AirGenerate™ unit should offer much greater flexibility than the GE® unit due to its dedicated ducting ports for both the intake and exhaust.  With the use of adjustable baffles, this could allow the harvesting of cool air during the summer months, but an outside-air supply and/or return during the winter months.

Sorry–no pics!

-Blake

2010 01 25 Blake Bilyeu Building Materials
PH Resources Comments (2) Permalink

Austria House Tour, 26 September 2009

Yes, this post is about an event that took place months ago, but it seems like such perfect blog material that I couldn’t resist. There’s much to say about this fabulous building in Whistler BC – the first Passive House building on the west coast! – but let’s start with the fun part first: the photos!

After learning about the impending construction of the first Passive House building on the west coast on the Drexel und Weiss website during the summer of 2009, a number of us who were taking the PH Consultant training in Seattle planned a trip to Whistler to view the building under construction. Reinhard Weiss of Drexel und Weiss was kind enough to put us in touch with the superintendent for the construction project Manfred Haas with Dürfeld Log Construction, the general contractor responsible for the assembly of the house. Manfred kindly invited us to come on by any time. On September 26th it was road trip time!

The Austria House is the fruit of the labors of the APG, the Austrian Passive House Group, a consortium led by three manufacturers of Passive House components: Drexel und Weiss, makers of all-in-one compact mechanical units designed specifically for Passive House buildings; Freisinger Fensterbau, the makers of Optiwin Passive House windows; and Sohm HolzBautechnik, a manufacturer of wood building components and systems. The APG found a partner in the Resort Municipality of Whistler, which will inherit the building from the APG after the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
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2010 01 17 Markus Kolb PH Buildings Comments (1) Permalink

PHnw Online Resources

Well, we’re off and running with both the new PHnw.org website and blog!  It’s exciting to see all of the enthusiasm that so many great people are bringing to this effort, and the growing awareness and interest out there.

In the spirit of that interest, we’ve also just launched a PHnw.org mailing list, which you can join by clicking on the Mailing List link on the blog or website (or the one right in this post!).

Another great resource for all those interested is the comprehensive archive of all of the presentations that were given at the 2009 Passive House Conference, in Urbana, IL – just visit this site, generously posted by the Passive House Institute U.S.!

Cheers,
Markus

2010 01 15 Markus Kolb PH Resources Comments (1) Permalink

Blog Welcome

Thanks to Markus Kolb for bringing the PHNW.org website and blog to its current level. This is an important milestone for Passive House Northwest. Protecting the climate is the overarching issue of our time. The work we do as practitioners and businesses focused on high performance building is crucial in this regard. Yet, there is a limit to what can be accomplished through individual effort. In the end, the larger community is in control. It is the attitudes and practices of the public that will make the difference. I encourage us all to use this blog, and to cultivate PHNW.org, as tools for sharing information, knowledge and expertise so that techniques and methods for creating high performance buildings may become common and widespread as quickly as possible.

2010 01 13 Hayden Robinson Uncategorized Comments Off Permalink