“Happy Earth Day! Check out Certified Passive House Designers Christina Pascoa and Mike Taylor as they reveal some of the tools that architects and designers can use to craft high performance, low energy buildings. Christina and Mike are two of the twenty-one Passive House Designers Diamond Schmitt has inhouse. Their work is integral to how the firm looks to reduce carbon emissions in its projects, more specifically through the Passive House Standard.

The five fundamental principles of Passive House Standard are:

1. Super Insulated Envelopes
2. Airtight Construction
3. High-Performance Glazing
4. Thermal Bridge Free Detailing
5. Heat Recovery Ventilation

In this Earth Day segment, Christina and Mike talk about one of the tools that can be used to check the performance of building envelopes – the thermographic scan. This device detects infrared light and can identify thermal leaks that the human eye can’t see. These scans can be useful for new buildings during construction, as well as for our existing building stock where we might need to provide a deep energy retrofit—or in the case of Passive House—a RetroPHit! The good news is that we have the knowledge and resources to tackle the changes need to design better buildings for a better planet. If you want to know more about Passive House, energy retrofits, or other tools that architects use to design better buildings—drop Christina and Mike a message.”