Passive House
15
Jul
upcoming presentations by fuentesdesign
Join fuentesdesign at our upcoming presentations:
CGBG: BROWN BAG SERIES: HIGH PERFORMANCE BUILDING ENVELOPES – PART 1
Our speakers will be: Brian Fuentes, AIA, CPHC, See the Colorado Green Building Guild for more information.
CGBG: August 12th: Brown Bag Series: High Performance Building Envelopes – Part 2
Sustainable Living Fair: Green Building Tent- Passive House and Zero Energy Homes
When: Saturday Sept. 20th, 11 am – 12:00 pm, Brian Fuentes, fuentesdesign LLC
Where: Fort Collins
What: After 15 years of experience designing and building net zero energy, straw bale and passive house type homes in Boulder and around Colorado, Architect and Builder Brian Fuentes AIA will share case studies of real green building projects and the lessons learned on what works, what doesn’t and where the best place to put your money for truly ecologically-minded, healthy, resilient homes. See Sustainable Living Fair for more info.
16
May
Sunshine project update
Perched on top of Sunshine Canyon, this 4-Mile Fire rebuild is heading towards the home stretch! Targeting the Passive House standard, the home is designed with a continuous air barrier, super-insulated wall/roof/slab assemblies and phase change material for increased thermal mass. In addition, the triple pane European windows by Zola Windows, are used throughout. The fuentesdesign team is excited to receive results from tomorrow’s preliminary blower-door air tightness test! Thanks to Roger Sims, of Natural Homes, and the entire team for a well executed project!!
19
Feb
CGBG High Performance Building Series
The Colorado Green Building Guild is hosting a four part, “High Performance Building Series” – joined by a number of other Passive House enthusiasts, Brian Fuentes will be presenting on Passive House concepts implemented in fuentesdesign projects.
15
Feb
Visit of Future Off-grid Passive House
Beautiful Colorado!! Here’s a quick panoramic of the future home site of an off-grid Passive House in Fairplay, Colorado (elevation 9900′). Construction anticipated spring 2013 – check back for additional videos as the project progresses!
15
Nov
En route to Passive House Certification!
28
Sep
National Passive House Tour features fuentesdesign homes
Building scientists and Passive House enthusiasts from around the country gathered in Denver for the 2012 National Passive House conference and capped of the week with tours of fuentesdesign homes.
View clips from the tours here:
- Marshall Plan – Rebuilding an 1890s mining cabin into a state of the art Passive House (VIDEO COMING SOON!)
- Renew – An urban retrofit renewing a 1950s track home into a cozy but modern adobe home
- Alpine Passive House – a prefabricated straw bale mountain home, pursuing Passive House certification
- Passivista – designed by fuentesdesign, built by Mainstream Corporation
15
Jun
Das Haus Tour is coming to Denver!
fuentesdesign is excited to welcome the Das Haus tour, scheduled to be in Denver October 2012.
According to the tour: ‘Das Haus is a traveling pavilion, a North American tour about advanced technologies for home construction and solar energy use. The purpose – to share German innovations that have achieved sustainable construction and operational energy savings. Attendees represent leading organizations and businesses in building materials, architecture, engineering, renewable energy and energy efficiency businesses, universities, and public officials…
The hands on format includes:
- An enclosed room built to Passive House standards featuring a relatively thin yet superinsulated envelope, heat recovery ventilation and cooling, and triple–pane windows that optimize solar heat gain while minimizing heat loss. Stepping into the room instantly communicates the superior indoor comfort the Passive House Standard is known for.
- Solar energy collection systems which help to power the pavilion, including roof modules featuring state–of–the–art thin film CIS photovoltaics, and solar capturing façade elements which generate power while providing additional insulation benefits.
- Exhibitive wall construction systems representing a wide range of insulation techniques and materials designed to resist thermal conductivity, avoid thermal bridging, and maximize year–round indoor comfort.”
Find more information here.
Photo from: http://dashaustour.com/media/
07
Feb
fuentesdesign utilizes THERM to evaluate heat transfer in building assemblies.
Utilizing thermal modeling (THERM) of wall assemblies, fuentesdesign gains bettering understanding of thermal performance. THERM, a computer based program developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory can be used to evaluate two-dimensional heat transfer in building components including windows/doors, walls, foundations and roofs. Beyond evaluating energy efficiency an understanding of heat-transfer is fundamental to understanding problems related to condensation, moisture damage, and structural integrity (LBNL).
Below, isotherms used to determine the transfer of heat through a glulam window sill in a fuentesdesign mountain home.
07
Nov
fuentesdesign Returns from International Passive House Days in France.
It was great to see some passive house projects in action – but like the US, passive house is relatively new to France, with only a handful of projects compared to neighboring countries (esp. Germany and Austria) where energy costs are higher. Considering this context, it was interesting to hear stories of struggles to get the builder to understand the air sealing details, finding affordable materials, getting financing, and getting projects approved through local building and zoning codes.
Below, a passive house on the outskirts of Paris, France.
