fsq, you have recommendations without knowing where the structure is located?

Hydronic cooling? Is this very common? How is dehumidification, an important function for indoor comfort in hot weather (and essential in many areas), accomplished?

Thanks for your helpful input!

We have just had a lengthy discussion with our builder and his HVAC team and this was the conclusion ( BTW - Our location is Vancouver BC on the North Shore - Zone 7 or 8) :

Many new homes seem to be automatically going for hydronic radiant and we thought to follow the herd but building to "near passive" means we don't necessarily need hydronic in floor heating. We're told to spend the money on the envelope (insulation and triple glazed windows) and go with a "forced air" system using mini split heat pump.

We were concerned about all the problems associated with long runs of aluminum ducting etc but were reassured that forced air systems are much better nowadays. Also, heating and cooling can easily be combined.

Comments appreciated

All the best

Your builder is correct about the envelope and suggest you first learn exactly what a passive build is.

This video explains what a passive home is with an actual normal looking home having zero heating costs. top 10 most efficient home America. In the description of the video is a link to an article by fine homebuilding "the passive home build" and will walk you through the requirements to meet strict passive home energy efficiency standards.

I'd advise you to learn what you want and not just know the catch word "passive" because just the orientation of the home would drastically effect the efficiency. There is also a manufacturer of windows and doors with insane efficiency numbers in your area. Fenstür Windows and Doors, located on Vancouver Island with passive certified products.

Radiant is a nice feature but in passive the radiant heat of the sun supplies a large percentage of the heat you will need. and the envelope contains the heat in an ultra tight home. A separate air exchanger maintains air quality along with a heating/cooling source but will rarely run in a well built passive home, and less important with exception to efficiency.

Beware of any fictional cartoon characters you may encounter here, they rarely live in reality and often give advice only by a script taken and written from others. They try to mimic humans with an exaggerated degree of knowledge and they have many names including trolls.

Fantastic! Thanks for your valued comments Kevin.

You can ignore that participant's comments, I do as do many others.

good,nice jobs

Hello,

Quick question regarding glazing.

For economic reasons can we combine triple glazed windows with cheaper double glazed windows or would that affect the passive house intention? eg. maybe the smaller windows can be double glazed and much larger windows triple?

FYI - Our home has a south facing backyard. The North facing side of the house experiences notable wind pressure which can be felt when we open the front door.

You can use double glazed over triple glazed windows but the difference in heat loss through the double glazed window would be approximately 40% higher than through the triple glazed window. This difference in heat loss will be consistent through all temperature differences between the inside and outside with exception to an equal temperature from inside to outside.

Just do the best you can and buy windows you can reasonably afford. Windows are rated in U-value and can be easily be converted to R value by dividing 1 by the U-value. 1 / .30 ='s an R value of 3.33, simple. Double pane windows are not all the same so shop around comparing infiltration ratings and U-values. Fixed windows are the most air tight but you also need windows to open. Casement windows are the best for air tightness followed by double hung and then sliders but I strongly advise against sliders as a window or glass door, numbers may look good new but go to hell very fast.