The goal of the passive home, simple put, is to reduce carbon emissions by reducing your energy use by 80 - 90% .  The theory is simple.  When you build a home, make it airtight, insulate it accordingly, and properly manage both solar gains and losses,  you create a homeostatic environment which uses very little energy to keep you home comfortable all the time.

Check out Passive Home general questions here:


What is a Passive House?

Koala Residential Lifestyle is now a certified passive house designer and consultant.  Passive house building has been around for about 30 years and through continued research and technology is vastly becoming the leader in highly efficient building construction.  At Koala, we believe passive house design, born from both common sense and a strong concern to reduce carbon emissions, will set the standard for how new homes are built and valued in the future.

Passive house is defined by a set of Design Principles.

  1. Continuous Insulation with no thermal bridges.
  2. Airtight construction.
  3. Optimized window performance and solar gain.
  4. Balanced heat/ moisture recovery ventilation.
  5. Minimized mechanical system.

The goal for passive house design is to “Maximize your gains, minimize your losses”.  Simply put,  When you heat your house, there is no reason for that heat to escape.  By creating a superior envelope we can keep the outside elements out to create a more balanced indoor air temperature.