Passivhaus Consulting

We are pleased to offer consulting services to those who wish for their project to be able to be certified under the passivhaus standard.

We lean on our extensive experience of both design and construction of Passivhaus buildings to ensure that your project is efficiently delivered. We work with homeowners for single projects as well as other design teams and builders for ongoing collaborations.

We seek to leverage our near-decade of Passivhaus learnings to deliver buildings faster and more efficiently.

Feasibility

This is the first step of the Passivhaus quality assurance journey, does the initial design meet the Passivhaus requirements? Which parts are working well? Are there areas for improvements?

This initial assessment gives the design team the confidence to proceed or the knowledge to make impactful changes that improve the performance of the building.

The focus at this stage is usually form factor (geometric complexity) along with glazing and shading. We make a series of assumptions regarding construction systems in conjunction with the wider design team, these are discussed and communicated to avoid future issues.

Optimisation

It is common to use the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to optimise the building. We are seeking to get the best performance outcome, aligned with design intent and also cost optimisation.

This phase can include recommendations for changes to shading, window placement, insulation build ups and ventilation layouts.

Construction Documentation

During this phase we provide the necessary details to ensure the building can perform as designed. These will usually be developed alongside the design and construction team; this is key to the cost effective delivery of projects. We work to ensure that the design intent of the project is maintained; performance does not have to compromise beauty.

The documentation can form the basis for an initial assessment by the Passivhaus Certifier if Passivhaus certification is being sought. For those choosing not to seek third party certification, the documentation provides a great basis for ensuring construction cost estimates reflect the building that is designed rather than based upon assumptions.

Contract

We are not lawyers but we are experienced in reviewing contracts to ensure that they accurately reflect the building as designed. This is not a substitution for a legal review but does give the confidence that the contract covers all of the Passivhaus aspects that a lawyer is unlikely to have experience in.

Quality Assurance on site

Regardless of whether Passivhaus certification is being sought, this service sees us attend site to meet with the builder and ensure that the construction details are being delivered as designed. It begins with a pre-construction meeting to run through all of the details to ensure the builder understands the interrelationships between all of the elements that make your Passivhaus work.

This process is a continuing refinement of how we deliver our own Passivhaus projects. It has also drawn on our learnings from projects where we have assisted clients whose initial design or build had not gone well, we have written about those learnings here.

Client Testimonial

“We partnered with Envirotecture to bring our Balmain home up to EnerPHit standards, and their PassivHaus consulting service delivered beyond expectations. We explored different approaches on how to deal with a 1884 home up to the EnerPHit standard. This was testing different scenarios to make sure the numbers stacked up. Thanks to their hard work, we now have a beautifully sustainable home that’s cost-effective to run and comfortable year-round. Envirotecture’s expertise and dedication were essential to our project’s success. Thank you Andy and Judd.”
– NS

“We’re currently building a Passive House Certified office space above our warehouse. From the outset, Andy’s Design was practical and made much better use of the space than previous designs.
Envirotecture want things to look nice, but thy also understand practicality and budget. Andy officer countless options and details, and prepared all of our PHPP modelling. So far this advice has been spot on!
We’ve undertaken the whole project ourselves, with minimal prior experience, and Andy’s details and availability to brainstorm solutions has made the process both easy and enjoyable.
We wouldn’t recommend anyone else more highly than the team at Envirotecture.”
– CG