Green Hammer and Passive House

Green Hammer is a design/build firm dedicated to designing and building high-performance living spaces, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions and conserving and even regenerating natural resources. Gene Wixson, certified passive house (Passivehaus) consultant, gave us a little bit of an overview of Green Hammer Homes, and then we got to see one being built. The home also happened to be a passive house.
According to the Green Hammer website (and to keep a long story short):

"The Passive House standard is an advanced energy-efficiency standard which methodically produces buildings with superior indoor air quality and thermal comfort while reducing heating energy-use by a factor of ten. For example, a Passive House residence can often be heated with the equivalent of a hair dryer. The Passive House standard applies to all building types including single and multi-family residences, mixed-use buildings, as well as commercial and office buildings."

Having built a few houses myself, I was interested to hear how they solve many of the problems that we faced on many of our projects, particularly relating to insulating hard to reach cavities and keeping blown-in insulation from settling and the infrared testing that they do on the homes to find areas where insulation has settled or was not properly installed. Unfortunately, the home we saw was near completion and much of the behind-the-scenes work was hidden from view, but we were able to see more of it on a similar project across town that is incorporating passive house construction on a commercial space above a ground-level restaurant, earning it the distinction of the first certified passive house commercial retro-fit in the US. Photos from the tours are included below.

Passive House - Green Hammer Project

The focus here was not the liquor license, rather the way the windows were sealed with a sort
of rubber cement that allows the window to leak and water to drain without growing mildew

Example of how blow-in insulation is installed and settling is prevented

Tight seals everywhere. Nowhere for air to escape.