The Proof is in the Project: Cost & Performance of Built Passive Multifamily

With many states incentivizing housing built to the Passive standard, everyone wants to know: are Passive-certified multifamily buildings really achieving better energy performance? The answer is yes. With many built multi-family passive projects throughout the Northeast, there are now multiple occupied projects where we can look at actual energy performance data, sometimes over multiple years. Using Passive project data from built projects in MA and PA, we will compare post-occupancy performance and cost to similar above-code and code built projects. We will also share takeaways gleaned from applying this same comparative analysis to publicly available post-occupancy benchmarking data in Philadelphia and several case studies from Massachusetts and Vermont. Learn how passive is much more consistently hitting the range of performance we will need to decarbonize new buildings and hit state and national climate targets. Discuss simple strategies for collecting more and better data that can demonstrate whether projects are achieving superior energy savings and occupant comfort.