Robert Koci
The Passive House continued
Canadian Contractor bmw canadian contractor reiner steve maxwell technical informationReno Coach Reiner Hoyer's Passive House gets a new fan in Canadian Contractor Tools Editor Steve Maxwell
Our Tools Editor Steve Maxwell has written an excellent article for another publication about Reiner Hoyer’s Passive House. There is more coming from Steve in Canadian Contractor on Reiner. We will provide much more technical information as well as some of Reiner’s comments on the build process. Of course, we have our video of my visit to his house that took place at the beginning of January if you want a feel for what the house looks like and how it’s working for Reiner (I am referring to the BMW in the driveway).
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Since Passsivhaus is such a bizarre concept here in Canada (What? No furnace?) may I suggest what we really want is much more talk of benefits. Technical specs on thick insulation is a feature (Boring-yawn!). Having no fear of baby death from carbon monoxide poisoning or explosion from gas furnace leak is a benefit (Exciting-yeah!).
People don’t buy features, they buy benefits. Acting like a salesman and trying to sell more (passivhaus brand) insulation starts the Return-on-Investment argument and lower costs on a downward spiral that you can’t win.
I am a building technologist interesting in learning more how to generate business doing Passivhaus retrofits coupled with backyard Combined-Heat-and-Power biomass biochar generators to sequestor all household waste as carbon, helping to reverse Global Warming’s runaway greenhouse effect. See my blog.
David:
Your point that Passive House (PH) sales won’t increase when we talk about the features is well made. But one of its greatest benefits of PH is cost saving, which is very much an ROI argument. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.
And I think you have to consider the biggest competitors to Passive House design are those house concepts that are heavy on mechanical or technological inputs. The differentiator with Passive House is its simplicity. Again, a very features-based sell.