What Is a Passive House or Building? 

A Passive House or Building maintains a rigorous standard for energy efficiency in a building. This standard can virtually eliminate the need for a carbon fuel-based heating and air conditioning system. 

How It Works

A passive building design incorporates an extremely well-insulated,  air-tight building envelope combined with systems to control air quality and indoor temperature and comfort. The insulation requirements for the various building components and the heating and cooling loads are calculated with a very accurate building modeling software, PHPP - Passive House Planning Package.

The Passive House Standard can only be met by using super-insulated window and door systems and super efficient heat recovery air exchangers. The result is a building that will require up to 90% less energy for heating and cooling and will maintain a better indoor air quality than a traditional building. The building is primarily heated by passive solar gain from windows and doors along with internal heat gain from people and electrical appliances, etc. The summer cooling load is controlled by smart low-e coatings in the glass, window orientation and shading. Any remaining heating or cooling demands are covered by a very small back-up heating source.

ENERGATE® WINDOWS and DOORS provide the best passive house performance available in fenestration products today. This will allow for more design flexibility and could potentially save costs for insulation elsewhere in the building envelope. ENERGATE® offers a wide range of products including entrance doors, side doors, balcony doors and lift & slide patio doors with the same super high performance as the windows. All products come in a wide range of stylish designs and colors.

ENERGATE® - the choice of the future.
 

SOLAR DECATHLON - 2009

		H Window Company is proud and excited to introduce ENERGATE® in the United States. ENERGATE® windows and doors were installed in both the winning houses at the Solar Decathlon 2007 and 2009 in Washington, DC.