Page 43 - 2014 SDCA Project

PASSIVE HOUSE DESIGN

The Jolly Avenue Development Center (JADC) will be the first commercial building in Georgia built to Passive House standards. This construction method is revolutionary in

its affordable approach and low operating cost, but it is as much an approach of the past as the future. In fact, before the advent of air conditioning and central heating, all
houses were “passive” houses— in that they relied on natural processes to heat and cool their interiors, as well as using fans, cross ventilation and elevated living space. The

“house” part of “passive house” is a misnomer leftover from the German name. In fact, all kinds of buildings – single-family, multifamily, schools, high-rises, and others can be
designed and built to passive house standards. The “passive” in “passive house” refers to achieving extreme energy savings before applying "active" technologies. Energy losses
are minimized and gains are maximized. Superinsulation and air-tight construction minimize losses. The energy recovery ventilator helps keep energy that has already been

generated, inside the building instead of venting it out. By modeling the thermal storage capacity of building materials and their "passive" effects on the indoor temperature,
the architect/designer can plan for thermal storage mass in a structure by specifying the floors, finished concrete slabs, etc. to balance the loads year-round and minimize

active heating, cooling and dehumidification loads. Of course, photovoltaics, solar, point, and heat pump hot water, grey water heat recovery, ground coupled cooling and
other technologies can still be implemented. In fact, Passive House has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Challenge Home program as the best path toward
Net Zero or Net Positive construction. Within the past 5 years, the cost premium for building this way has fallen to 8-11% for homes and parity or even up-front savings on

commercial buildings, where added envelope expenses are recovered in major mechanical system size reductions.

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