The International Passive House Open Days are a great opportunity to learn about Passive House and healthy, energy efficient buildings. This open house will have professionals on hand with the knowledge and tools to explain the technical details of Passive House projects. The Sacramento Passive House will be 90% complete, with only fixtures and finishes remaining.
Event dates and time:
June 28th from 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.
June 29th from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Background: These clients and their two kids, were crammed into an existing 1940's 2-bed, 1-bath bungalow home that needed a full rebuild. After careful review of the existing home, we determined that we could retain the existing foundation and floor platform framing. With small extensions at front and rear, we were able to create a 4-bed, 3-bath new home, while re-using most of the old foundation and floor framing platform. This allowed us to significantly reduce the embodied carbon footprint of this new build.
For styling, we referenced the classic Californian Arts and Crafts Bungalow, with large front and rear dormers. The gabled roof allowed us to fit a second floor under the roof, keeping the massing within the scale of this existing single-story neighborhood. Because this house faces directly west, shading and overheating had to be carefully considered. The bungalow design, with deep overhangs and covered porches, plus large existing trees, helped ensure the cooling loads remain well below the heating loads for this location.
The project is targeting Passive House Plus performance. It is an all-electric home which includes rooftop PV, solar storage plus E.V. charging. All materials were carefully considered for both fire-resilience and low upfront carbon emissions. The solid wood triple-pane windows and doors were made in British Columbia, where the exterior insulation is the first batch of rigid exterior hemp fiberboard and was produced in Idaho. An embodied carbon analysis (using PHN's PHribbon) will be completed for this project. Our clients aim to provide an example of what is possible for resilient, low-impact, sustainable construction in their existing Sacramento neighborhood.
