Massively Passive: Large-Scale Passive House Retrofits by ZeroCarbonProduction
Pitch
Existing buildings suck 40% of U.S. energy use. Deep-energy Passive House retrofits create energy savings of 60-80%. Go Massively Passive!
Description
Summary
In the North American building sector, increasingly stringent building energy codes for new construction in many jurisdictions have sharply reduced new building energy use to the point that they can easily achieve net-zero energy (NZE) on an annual basis. In contrast, existing buildings remain a large energy drain, using on average 10 times more energy than new NZE buildings. Deep-energy Passive House retrofits of existing buildings consistently create energy savings of 60-80%.
Isolated deep-energy retrofits make for good case studies, but it is time to move from case studies to larger-scale implementation in North America. While mass-scale Passive House retrofitting would be new to this continent, it is not a new phenomenon. In the Netherlands 153 row houses were retrofitted to meet the Passive House standard, and the retrofit of each home took only 7-10 working days thanks to the use of prefabricated wall and roof panels. The residents stayed in their homes during the entire process, which was led by Teeken Beckers Architecten.
This general approach could easily be replicated here; Passive House-quality prefabricated panels are now being manufactured by a few U.S. companies. Zero Carbon Productions is proposing a Massively Passive demonstration project to field-test and promote this approach.
While many communities could serve as the initial candidates for a Massively Passive project, a Massively Passive retrofit of Levittown, a hamlet in Hempstead, New York, would be compelling for several reasons. As the original and still quintessential suburban sprawl development, it already has a well-recognized cultural significance that would boost all promotional messaging. Retrofitting even 10% of the existing 17,447 housing units would be a noteworthy, and eminently feasible, project. Technically, because these homes were factory-built with identical components and extremely similar layouts, a mass-scale retrofit would be fairly straightforward.
What actions do you propose?
The main obstacles to the implementation of widespread deep-energy retrofits in North America can be generally characterized as: financial; market barriers including imperfect information and limitations of the typical design process; and behavioral and organizational realities. This proposal for a Massively Passive retrofit specifically targets the market barriers to such implementation by demonstrating the feasibility of an exemplary project that can be widely promoted. Note that technical hurdles were intentionally not included in the list of barriers, as the infrastructure and technical know-how to implement large-scale Passive House retrofit projects already exists in North America, as several case studies can attest.
One such case study is the Passive House retrofit of the 84-unit McKeesport Downtown Housing in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, led by the architecture firm Thoughtful Balance. Post-retrofit utility data show a 68% energy savings compared to the pre-renovation building, despite the fact that community kitchens were provided on each floor, a mini-fridge and microwave were provided in each resident room, an elevator was added, lighting levels were increased, and air conditioning and ventilation were added.
While such case studies are extremely important, Zero Carbon Productions is advocating for a truly large-scale Passive House retrofit that can be used as an exemplary project. Many communities across North America have qualities that make them appropriate candidates for a Massively Passive demonstration project, but for financing reasons a community in New York State would have advantages. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has a program that provides financial support for turning average buildings into high-performance ones that use at least 60% less energy. In addition, two New York-based firms already supply financing specifically for Passive House projects, NYCEEC and BuildForward.
Levittown, a hamlet in Hempstead, New York, would be an ideal Massively Passive candidate for several reasons: its well-recognized cultural significance, its factory-crafted homes; and the age of the 17,447 housing units. However, there are other potential candidate communities that are worth exploring. The first action taken would be to identify appropriate candidate communities, develop a coalition of stakeholders, and solicit support and financing for a Massively Passive retrofit.
Such an approach has worked well in the affordable housing development community, where there has been a momentous shift in both the awareness and adoption of Passive House principles just in the last two years. Eleven states now have incentives for developers of affordable housing to meet Passive House standards, thanks to efforts by a coalition of stakeholders and leadership from Tim McDonald, President of Onion Flats and professor at Temple University. Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Idaho, Ohio, South Dakota, and Illinois now include Passive House certification as a basis for earning points in their state’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) application. In addition to these state housing finance agencies (HFAs) that have already jumped on board, McDonald and his coalition are actively engaged with 28 other HFAs to replicate the use of Passive House strategies as a means of getting to a Net-Zero-Energy-Capable standard by 2030.
None of these states would have jumped on board without a few early-adopter exemplary projects, such as the 57-unit Orchards at Orenco Passive House affordable housing development in Hillsboro, Oregon. That’s why a Massively Passive retrofit exemplary project is urgently needed here in North America.
Who will take these actions?
Zero Carbon Productions, a joint venture of Zero Impact Architecture and Low Carbon Productions, will assemble a group of stakeholders from the Passive House community, including Passive House consultants and manufacturers of Passive House-quality building components, to identify, secure financing for, and implement a Massively Passive retrofit exemplary project. James BIll, principal of Zero Impact Architecture, has been a certified Passive House designer since 2012.
Where will these actions be taken?
The Massively Passive retrofit exemplary project will be implemented in North America.
How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?
As described in the 9th Annual IPCC report, various studies involving many buildings have indicated potential reductions in energy savings post-retrofit of 50-75% in single-family housing and 50-90% in multifamily housing. Zero Carbon Productions expects that a Massively Passive retrofit will achieve savings on the upper ends of those ranges, or approximately 60-80% of pre-retrofit building energy use.
What are other key benefits?
Occupants of renovated housing experience greatly improved indoor air quality (IAQ) and comfort, leading to many positive health outcomes.
What are the proposal’s costs?
A builder in New York City analyzed his supplemental costs for retrofitting to Passive House in five retrofit projects and found they averaged about 3%. The Netherlands retrofit was completed at a cost of roughly 87,500 Euros (just under $100,000) per house. The IPCC estimates supplemental costs at about $100-400/m2 ($9-$36/ft2) above what would have been spent on a routine renovation. As mentioned in the IPCC’s Climate Change 2014 report, “Although retrofits generally entail a large upfront cost, they also generate large annual cost savings, and so are often attractive from a purely economic point of view. Korytarova and Ürge-Vorsatz (2012) note that shallow retrofits can result in greater lifecycle costs than deep retrofits.”
Time line
Zero Carbon Productions expects to implement an exemplary Massively Passive retrofit in North America within the next 5 years. Other Massively Passive retrofits should follow within 10 years, as states recognize the necessity of retrofitting existing buildings in order to meet carbon reduction goals.
Related proposals
References
James, M. and Bill, J., Passive House in Different Climates. New York, NY: Routledge, 2016 (forthcoming).
James, M., Passive House Accelerates. Larkspur, CA: Low Carbon Productions, June 2016 (forthcoming).
Implementing Deep Energy Step-By-Step Retrofits: EuroPHit: Increasing the European Potential, Darmstadt, Germany: Passive House Institute, 2016.
By:
ZeroCarbonProduction
