Loadingdock5 presents 2 PH projects at 174 Grand (open house)

NYPH meetup on location! No better way to learn more about Passive Houses then to be in one!

Loadingdock5 will be presenting their two current PH projects and is hosting an open house at the same time. Werner Morath and Sam Bargetz will open the doors of the first Passive House in Williamsburg, 174 Grand Streat and preent this project as well as the Greenpoint PH.

At 6:30pm, there wil be a 15 to 20 minute presentation, "Passive House 101" - for those new to Passive House. The presentation will provide a quick introduction into the Passive House methodology and you will be able to see in real time the various PH elements in this project.

At 7pm, Loadingdock5 will present the new construction PH - 174 Grand, which is the location of this NYPH meetup - as well as the gut renovation PH in Greenpoint. They will focus on the challenges they had finding appropriate products, air tightness and thermal break solutions used - CMU-EIFS for 174 Grand - 100 year old brick in Greenpoint....

The house will be open between 6pm and 7:45pm.

After the event everyone is encouraged to walk around the block to a (yet to be determined) drink establishment in Williamsburg to toast on to tremendous PH growth in 2011!

NYPH members free - join here 
Meetup members and general public $5

 

RSVP here 

 

National Passive House Alliance (PHA) Update

This post is meant to be a brief recent history of PHA and how NYPH fits into the bigger picture.

At the 2010 North American Passive House Conference in Portland Oregon, the National Passive House Alliance was officially launched - and a seminar at the conference was dedicated to the formation of PHA.

PHA is a creation of the PHIUS Board.   Tom DiGiovanni is the Director of PHA, appointed by the PHIUS Board - and has been actively working on the PHA startup since the start of October.    The initial PHA Board was appointed by the PHIUS Board on November 6th.  The PHA Board has met once so far, on November 6th - right after its appointment.   The PHA Board has 13 members - 8 Regional Members and 5 "At Large" members.   The Northeast Region (of which NY is a part) Board Member is J.B. Clancy of Boston.  Ken Levenson, President of NYPH, is an At Large Board Member of PHA.  PHA offices will be located in Washington D.C.  The PHA website, with all board member bios, is here.

On November 23rd, a NYPH member meeting was held to discuss formally joining PHA as an Affiliated Chapter.   Out of the meeting an encouraging mix of aspirations, concerns, questions and constructive suggestions were expressed  - and subsequently passed on to Tom DiGiovanni for his consideration.   Later that evening Andreas Benzing, Vice President of NYPH, signed the Affiliation Agreement and we became "official".

Out of the November 23rd member meeting and subsequent conversations among NYPH board members, our accountant and lawyer, and with Tom DiGiovanni, the following rough organizational outline is emerging:

1. NYPH is an independent organization - yet bound to the rules of PHA per the Affiliation Agreement.
2. NYPH and/or PHA can dissolve the affiliation with or without cause.
3. Through PHA's agreements with iPHA, member benefits of iPHA will be made available to NYPH/PHA members.
4. A membership fee schedule is to be developed, that equitably shares income among NYPH, PHA and iPHA - and it is hoped at a value structure that encourages membership growth.
5. PHA is a 501c(3) tax exempt organization and NYPH is currently in the process of applying to the IRS for its own 501c(3) status.
6. It is hoped that tasking of PHA and PHIUS will be substantially clarified.   (While still far from formal in definition, it has been expressed that PHA will be potentially focused on: general interest publications, education, promotion and member services - with PHIUS potentially focused on: standards, certifications, research, technical publications and training curriculum.) 

The only thing we can say for certain is that there is great enthusiasm at local, regional and national levels to make Passive House a great success in America through the close cooperation and encouragement of efforts by all involved.   We will post updates as our organizing efforts develop.

NYPH looks forward to taking an active part in PHA - and helping make 2011 the break-out year it portends to be.

NYPH visits Hudson Passive Project during Int. Open Passive House days

As part of the International Open Passive House Days - New York Passive House (NYPH) organized a carpool to the Hudson Passive Project. Seven cars left NYC around 10.30 so at 1pm this Saturday around 20+ NYPH-members and Meetup followers had arrived at the PH in Claverack, NY.  In addition there were also a dozen or more neighbors and locals present that wanted to check out this super efficient house that had been built in their town.

Hudson Passive Project's barn typology with large south facing facade

The house, nicely tucked away in the rolling hills of Columbia County welcomes you with its impressive barn inspired south facing wall of windows (see pic). Once inside, after taking of your shoes, the large open living space was a great location for Dennis (and his team, contractor, designers, NYSERDA) to explain the how and what behind the project.

Living room during discussion with Dennis Wedlick

 After explaining the basic ideas behind the house and its Passive House features (Heat from the south facing windows, Efficient HRV, R-48 SIP walls, R-54 roof). But the biggest impression on PH crowd was made by the blowerdoor test test results of below 0.2ACH50. The carefull execution by the Bill Stratton Building Company of all developed details played a big part in this - but also the design concept helped towards acheiving such a remakable tight envelope - its compact form with only four bays (the trusses) on which the SIPS rest reduced the amount of seams to a minimum and thus the chance for leaks was greatly reduced.


Some great Q&A followed after which the everyone could explore the house - check out the Heat recovery ventilator (Zehnder Comfoair 200 - suspended in the ceiling), the mini-splits (for back up heat/cooing - one prominently located in the loft space) and the thermal bridge free installation of skylights and windows - the finished millwork/trim wasn't installed yet, which was great because you could really see the insulation that makes the break.

Mini split unit built into wall of loft

The only surprise for me was the slightly chily concrete floor slab - with your shoes off you really noticed it - it should be noted that the house is still under construction and consequently the doors and windows are left open most of the day. Thus the outside November temperature come inside and cools off the slab signicantly. Once the house will be used for actual living, the slab should take on the same temperature of the rest of the house (around 70F) and the mass of the slab will actually make the temperature very stable and comfortable. You could already feel the slab slowly heating up on the south side where the sun was warming it through the high solar heat gain Serious Windows (all PH specs of the house can be found here)

By 3pm most visitors had checked out all the PH features of the project, talked to each the design team, contractor, etc and headed back to the city, for some bouldering in New Paltz or for some BBQ in Hudson. It was great day to see an almost finished PH project and NYPH plans on hosting more Open House in the near future. Hopefully it will be really cold outside next time so we can actually experience the PH really "working" - Stay tuned and join NYPH so you won't miss out!

Dr. Wolfgang Feist Meets with NYPH Members

On the afternoon of October 25th NYPH members met and discussed Passive House with Dr. Wolfgang Feist for 2 hours within the under-construction living area of NYPH member Sam Bargetz' Passive House project at 174 Grand Street in Williamsburg. It was a wide ranging and fascinating discussion - from broad issues of implementation in America, to specifics of PHPP calculations. Joining Dr. Feist as honored guests in the discussion were Katrin Klingenberg, founder of PHIUS and Laura Briggs, PHIUS Board Member. (See attached photo.)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Open Passive House Tours - Nov. 13th

NYPH is planning an open house trip during the International Passive House Days on Saturday November 13th to see Dennis Wedlick's Hudson Passive Project.   

To sign-up for carpooling from NYC, go to our Meetup page here: 

http://www.meetup.com/NYPassiveHouse/calendar/15274206/

Hudson Passive Project: 

A prototype rural home-of-tomorrow, the Hudson Passive Project is an energy conservation project designed by Dennis Wedlick Architect, built by Bill Stratton Building Company, and realized with support from NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). After almost three years of research and development—but only four months of construction—it will be the first certified passive house in New York State and one of the most energy-efficient homes in the country.

Travel time will depend on sites visited - the Meetup posting will be updated with additional information as things develop.   Carpool coordinating emails will be sent out on Thursday 11/11

Passive House Consultants' Training Program

Passive House Consultants' Training Program

New York City  Winter 2010-11

Parsons New School,

New York, NY

• Phase I - December 16-18, 2010
• Phase II - January 6-8, 2011
• Phase III - January 20-22, 2011

http://www.passivehouse.us/passiveHouse/PHIUSConsultantsTraining.html

Passive House Featured in New York Times

Herb Swanson for The New York Times

Above the fold in today's Sunday Business section, Can We Build in a Brighter Shade of Green? by Tom Zeller Jr., does a wonderful job of describing the significance of Passive House construction and its rigorousness.   It is especially gratifying because the featured project, a single family home in Norwich Vermont is the product of Zero Energy Design, an engineering and architecture firm located in Boston and New York and whose partner, Jordan Goldman, is an active NYPH member.   The article also has a wonderful set of graphics titled The Secrets of a Passive House, explaining some of the more esoteric aspects of the approach.   Along with a fun video interviewing the family and showing the shell construction.  This NY Times contribution to Americans' understanding of Passive House cannot be overstated.   Enjoy.

2010 Passive House Conference Announced

An exciting conference agenda was announced this week by PHIUS for the 5th Annual North American Passive House Conference - to be held November 5th, 6th and 7th.  The conference will include presentations by such luminaries as Dr. Wolfgang Feist, founder of PHI and Amory Lovins, founder of RMI.    The agenda is chock full of what should be practical and inspiring seminars - and of course unparalleled networking opportunities with others serious about Passive House around  North America, including designers, engineers, builders and component suppliers.

To be held in beautiful Portland Oregon, this conference looks to be the best yet.  We hope to see you there!

NYPH September Newsletter

Dear Passive House enthusiast,

After an exciting summer of organizing and events - including a great presentation by Chris Benedict in August – it is a good time to share news of upcoming events and goings on.   

Upcoming Events:

SEPTEMBER 28^th, Meetup.

Presentation by Thomas O’Leary, founder of the Irish Passive House Institute.

Find out more here.   

SEPTEMBER 29^th, Urban Green Expo

Panel discussion, “The Active State of Passive House: European Perspective on Implementation in North America”

Find out more here. 

(OCTOBER events coming soon – see NYPH Events Calendar for updates.)

NOVEMBER 4^th – 7^th,

North American Passive House Conference, Portland Oregon

Find out more here. 

NOVEMBER 12^th – 14^th,

2010 International Passive House Days

Find out more here. 

(We expect a few local projects, currently under construction, to be listed over the next 2 months.)

more events to be announced soon....

Goings On at NYPH:

Passive House Alliance (PHA):  It is expected that PHA will be sending initial information regarding it’s formation in the next month.   We’ve heard that the November convention is to include a “kick-off” meeting of regional member groups.   If you’d like to participate in the upcoming PHA formation dialogue please contact Ken Levenson at  info@nypassivehouse.org.  

NYPH Membership: A “NYPH Member” logo will be distributed to current members in the coming weeks.    If you’re not already a member, consider joining today - here.   And if you’d like to lend a hand in managing the membership database and developing future membership benefits please email Jordan Goldman at membership@nypassivehouse.org.

Events:  Many events are in the planning pipeline.   More than any other aspect of the organization, event planning and execution requires regular assistance.   As the event schedule grows over the coming weeks and months consider helping out.   Contact Floris Buisman at events@nypassivehouse.org.

NYPH Website:  The website www.nypassivehouse.org is ambitious, and is expected to be a growing resource for all things Passive House for the New York region.  Therefore in the push to fill-out content and develop specifics – more and more helping hands are needed.   If you have skills in writing, proof reading, website programming, graphic design among others, and are interested in helping, please contact Andreas Benzing at marketing@nypassivehouse.org.

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more...:  Be sure to friend NYPH on Facebook here, and connect with NYPH on LinkedIn here.   If you'd like to contribute to the social media development contact Greg Duncan at network@nypassivehouse.org. 

This fall should be energizing for Passive House, and your participation in attending events and helping organize will help ensure the season's success.

Best Wishes,

Ken Levenson

info@nypassivehouse.org 

Air-sealing Party at the Park Slope Passive House

Prospect Architecture is currently finishing the construction of one of the first Passive Houses in NYC (see NYPH project directory for other projects under construction). Since the project is a gut rehab of a landmarked brownstone, all the insulation and airsealing had to be accomplished on the interior of the brick shell. Getting the building up to Passive House air tightness standards (0.6 Air Changes per Hour at 50 Pascal pressure) has proven to be a challenge.

At 9am on Sunday August 8^th, approximately 20 Passive House enthusiasts that signed up for this NYPH Meet-Up were welcomed with coffee and donuts to the construction site. Jeremy Shannon (Prospect Architecture) explained what this “party” was all about. First of, the plumbing traps had to be filled with water, otherwise each one would leak air straight out of the standpipe. Then next task, that required many volunteers, was to find as many air leaks in the exterior as possible. To do this Jeremy turned on the blowerdoor to depressurize that house to 50 Pascals (see picture). 

There are multiple ways to do find leaks once you start sucking into the house at that pressure. The larger leaks can be detected by running your hands along window and wall edges. Smaller ones can be found by using a lighter on the inside of wall and corners, if the flame starts to bend/flicker, a leak has been detected. Lastly a commercial smoke machine (think disco) is used on the outside of the house to produce a large smoke cloud. The pressure in the house created by the blowerdoor, will suck the smoke into the house through smallest cracks. Thus where smoke appears, a crack is present and can be detected. During the first two hours, the entire crew walked all 5 floors of the house and using these methods marked all the leaks with blue painters tape.

At about 11 o’clock the blowerdoor was turned off and the actual air sealing started. The reason that you can’t air seal with the blowerdoor on is that the pressure will actually blow the sprayfoam out of the opening that you are trying to seal. Thus you need to get started early enough in the day with this air sealing, so the foam has time to cure and the leak can be retested at the end of the day.

Different crews started to fix the found leaks be performing specific tasks throughout the house. Large holes, for example the newly installed exhaust for the (back up) instant hot water heater, had to be sealed with spray foam. The plumber had made a big hole in the wall to run his pipes.

Most leaks were much smaller, however they all add up so were addressed as well. The original wainscoting and window frames had many leaks among the edges of the original woodwork. These were all caulked in a matching color. Airtight cover plates were put on all electrical outlets. Duct-work terminations were sealed to the structure with mastic. And a variety of other leaks were addressed (hatch, windows) or marked to be fixed in the next weeks.

After pizza lunch, some additional sealing was completed and it was determined that all spray foam that had been applied earlier in the day was sufficiently cured, the blowerdoor test was performed for the second time. As it was know that the custom build airtight doors in the basement were missing thresholds and would thus leaks significant amounts of air, the airchanges were not up to Passive House standards yet, but a 15% improvement had been made during this one day. It is the expectation that once the few remaining big leaks are addressed that the house will meet the standard and that this event had provided a big push to get the building that tight.

NYPH General Meeting tonight (August 11) at 6pm

Please join NY Passive House tonight at 6PM for the NYPH General Meeting.  

 

We are well on our way to become a vibrant and vital organization in promoting Passive House in the New York area, but it can use everyone's help.

 

So if you have the inclination, please don't hesitate to join us and lend a hand. 

Get involved in upcoming events, help us set priorities and generate and discuss new ideas for NYPH. We will also provide updates in regard to legal status, membership and sponsors.

Location
25 East 13th Street, Rm#206, Parsons The New School, New York, NY

(tell the security guard that you are there for the Passive House meeting. Walk up the stairs. Rm #206 is straight across from the stair door) 

Welcome to NY Passive House

We are very excited to get this website and blog off the ground and into your hands - we are glad to have you here.

NY Passive House (NYPH) - through events, activities and this website - seeks to create the synergies required to make Passive House construction a success in New York. And this blog will be one of the catalysts - presenting and discussing an array of subject matter, information and interests tied to Passive House - locally and around the world.

NYPH is a "grassroots" nonprofit organization - formed by Passive House enthusiasts in early 2010. All the work is done by volunteers. This is also a sideways route of asking for your patience as we work out the kinks and figure out the best paths in the myriad of moving parts that constitute nonprofit and website construction.

NYPH is a growing, dynamic community and we look forward to your participation. Consider starting by joining as a member - members then have many opportunities to volunteer. Offer blog suggestions or unsolicited posts to blog@nypassivehouse.org - we'd love to expand the discussion. And of course, attend events.

With you, we look forward to making Passive House the new building standard for New York and beyond.