Certified Passivhaus (CPH) is the name given to buildings that have met the performance matrixes and accreditation of the Passivhaus institute.

The demands for such accreditation can be labour intensive and complicated. If accreditation is particularly important to a client, our buidling designers in Newcastle at TRC will bring in a Certified Passive House consultant to run the design through assessment software to ensure it can reach CPH status.

However, if the goal is to create a comfortable, energy efficient, cost-efficient and healthy home, then the Passivhaus construction principles are still available to implement without the rigmarole of accreditation. Of the 50,000 Passivhaus’ around the world, only 9,000 have sought CPH status. For the purpose of this document, a building implementing the 5 key criteria of Passivhaus shall be referred to as a Passive house/Passivhaus regardless of if it is tested and quantified to CPH standards.

Some examples of CPH requirements:

1. The Space Heating Energy Demand (and the approximate space cooling energy demand) are not to exceed 15 kWh per square meter of net living space (treated floor area) per year or 10 W per square meter peak demand.
2. The total energy to be used for all domestic applications (heating, hot water and domestic electricity) must not exceed 60 kWh per square meter of treated floor area per year.
3. The building must hold airtightness to have a maximum of 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 Pascals pressure as verified with an onsite pressure test.