Passive House Construction

Do you know that on average, Americans spend between 85-95% of their lives indoors? With this much time spent inside, it’s essential to build a home that isn’t just comfortable — your home needs to be resilient with healthy ventilation.

Not all our builds are certified Passive House homes, but as Vermont Certified Passive House Builders and building science professionals, we integrate passive house principles into all our new builds and renovations to make every project as energy efficient and carbon neutral as possible.

Montpelier Construction is a leader when it comes to Passive House home construction, with two Certified Passive House consultants and Vermont’s first Certified Passive House Builder on our team. Together, we can help you design and build a Passive House home, the most energy efficient type of home in the world.

View a Passive House Project.

What Is a Passive House?

Developed in Germany in the 1990's, Passivhaus or Passive House is the most rigorous energy efficient and green building standard in the world.

A Passive House building will typically use about a 1/10 of the energy to heat and cool as a standard code-built house. In a small home, the heating and cooling system could be as small as a 9-12Kbtu air source heat pump (ASHP). This translates into big savings on heating and cooling for the homeowner and reduced CO2 in the atmosphere as our electric grid becomes greener. A small and affordable renewable solar system can be added to create a Net-zero or PHIUS+ Source Zero standard for the home.

With over 40% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from heating and cooling buildings, living in a Passive House is one of the most important things a homeowner can do to make a real difference in reducing CO2 in our atmosphere while experiencing the comfort and healthy indoor spaces of a Passive House home.

Montpelier Construction Passive House Consultants use the Passive House home model as a tool in all our home designs. We make recommendations based on this model so that your build’s energy demands are close to, or if possible, at, the low levels of a Passive House home. This evaluation process can be used in the design phase of any new construction or renovation project to maximize the value of insulation and window placement.