This paper provides an overview of the Passive House design concept, an approach to building design which has been used successfully in Germany since the early-1990s to create buildings which, through increased envelope efficiency, have an annual heating energy consumption of no more than 15 kWh per square meter of floor area (15 kWh/(m2a)). It will also examine the design, construction, and operation of the Smith House. Built in 2003 in Urbana, IL, it is the first house built in the US using the specific practices and tools developed by the Passive House Institute in Darmstadt, Germany.

Units: Dual