2020 Sustainable Innovation Award
Energy/Operational Carbon
This single-family residence is a “PASSIVE HOUSE PLUS” certified building in West Los Angeles (Culver City) and one of the first Passive House buildings in Southern California. It is an all-electric home focusing on the reduction of energy consumption, reduction of operational carbon and providing most of the needed power via a small on-site photovoltaic system with onsite battery storage (14kWh). This is a Net Zero Energy Home, which turns out a to be a “Plus Energy Home” with 16x solar PV panels. After the first year of operation the surplus power generated onsite is sufficient to drive an electric vehicle +/- 10,000 miles.
Passive House Los Angeles (PHLA+) is located on a duplex lot, an infill site and is comprised of 1,791 sq.ft. living area with an additional large 400 sq.ft. deck area over the carport. This home has four bedrooms and three baths. Large windows with automated exterior sun shades are providing sufficient natural daylight and a connection between indoor and outdoor living even with this home's limited footprint. PHLA+'s energy performance was modeled using the by the Passive House Institute (PHI) developed Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software and following the 5x basic Passive House principles:
(1) Climate specific continuous insulation. PHLA+ uses two Inches of rigid foam insulation below the slab on grade, 2x6 wood framing with net & blow insulation and 1/2" of exterior continuous basalt rock and recycled slag insulation.
(2) Minimizing thermal bridges.
(3) High-efficiency operable windows & exterior automated venetian blinds for shading which are reducing the cooling load significantly and at the same time providing privacy at night.
(4) The Airtight building envelope was achieved with a liquid applied air barrier. PHLA+ achieved 0.48 ACH50 which is well below the very demanding Passive House certification requirement of 0.6 air changes per hour.
(5) Continuous 24-hour filtered (MERV-13 or higher as needed) fresh air ventilation with heat recovery (HRV). Fresh air is getting supplied to the living and bedrooms and is extracted from the bathrooms, kitchen and storage areas. Ventilation systems like this have gained more interest this year due to COVID-19 and local wild fires. No air is re-circulated in the building and always 100% fresh air is provided.