Why Design to PHIUS+ Part 2

Why do you build to PHIUS Standards?
Asked at the 2017 North American Passive House Conference in Seattle, WA.
Lindsey Elton, EcoAchievers (Chicago, Il): “I believe in PHIUS because the organization has taken an extremely detailed look according to our climate zone of what it takes to build a net-zero home or a net-zero building.”
Peter Marciano, Legacy Buildings (New York City): “I've come to the conclusion based on what I've built that there's a lot of information out here. There's several passive house programs available. And, for me, having come to the realization that it has to be climate specific because that's what works. That's what works in this nation. That's what works in this country.”
Marc Rosenbaum, P.E. (West Tisbury, MA): “I've been doing this for almost 40 years, and one of the things that PHIUS brings to the table here that's so amazing to me is people are interested in the actual performance of the buildings. They're measuring them. They're comparing them to what they thought they should do, and it's a really terrific community that is sharing the information to make better buildings.”
Elton: “They've taken all the guesswork out, they're doing the calculations, and they were smart about it. And we can employ this time after time after time again.”
Marciano: “If it's not climate specific, I have had definite problems with certain aspects of my enclosure and certain aspects of my building. And I wouldn't make that mistake again. I would definitely use a climate specific standard to establish... To build my next passive house.”
Rosenbaum: “And I think we all know why we're doing it. We're doing it because we care about the climate, we care about the kids, we care about other species besides ourselves. And we don't talk about that. We talk about BTUs, and thermal bridges, and solar heat gain coefficients.”
Elton: “We're firmly behind it, our company's firmly behind it. We believe in it and that's why we're here.”
Rosenbaum: “PHIUS has really created this community of people, who I think, care about each other's learning, and share our successes and our failures, and it makes all of us better.”
music: Sabana Havana by Jimmy Fontanez/Media Right Productions