Reiner's letter from Germany

I am just waiting for my flight in Frankfurt to return from a Passive House conference in Hannover. There were lots of new and interesting things. Like

1. An HRV with build in heat pump and hot water tank using the exhaust air as a heat source.

2. Isoquick foundation system is working its way in to Canada. The owner of the company was in Toronto last fall and the installed the system in a Whistler Passive House project. I love it. It is so simple to insulate a foundation with zero thermal bridging; something Canada building practices pay no attention to.

3. VIP panels with unbelievable insulation values 0.007 u value metric = R value of 800 (eight hundred!), and that’s not a typo. It’s only around 1″ thick.  I can see this type of units showing up in north America in 10 years. Amazing stuff. It will cut down installation time for a system to a few hours.

4. I saw this round, opening window at the show. I think it is the first I have seen.

5. No trip to Europe is complete without seeing something like this installation of solar panels. I don’t have any stats on how much power this installation generates, but It at least provides some shade!