They aren’t “airtight”, that would awful. They are well-insulated and designed to take advantage of passive solar heating and air exchange cooling. The way roofs and windows and orientation on the land is usually done for western homes is just terribly inefficient for capturing and releasing heat in the right ways. Just some thick walls, a bank of windows facing the sunrise ,and some proper roof vents that can be opened when it’s hot is all most passive houses really are.
They literally need to meet airtightness requirements to meet the Passive House standard. It’s tested with a blower door test to check the air exchange rate at a prescribed negative pressure. You may be referring to a loose definition of passive house, instead of the standard, though. Airtightness is not “awful” as you suggested - mechanical ventilation provides fresh air
I’d bet money that won’t work well here in the southwest USA where it’s been above 110F (43C) for almost 60 days in a row and above 115F (46C) for almost 30 days in a row.
They aren’t “airtight”, that would awful. They are well-insulated and designed to take advantage of passive solar heating and air exchange cooling. The way roofs and windows and orientation on the land is usually done for western homes is just terribly inefficient for capturing and releasing heat in the right ways. Just some thick walls, a bank of windows facing the sunrise ,and some proper roof vents that can be opened when it’s hot is all most passive houses really are.
Pfft you’ll never get accepted into journalism school with that attitude
They literally need to meet airtightness requirements to meet the Passive House standard. It’s tested with a blower door test to check the air exchange rate at a prescribed negative pressure. You may be referring to a loose definition of passive house, instead of the standard, though. Airtightness is not “awful” as you suggested - mechanical ventilation provides fresh air
I’d bet money that won’t work well here in the southwest USA where it’s been above 110F (43C) for almost 60 days in a row and above 115F (46C) for almost 30 days in a row.