Exploring Passive House Design - 90% Energy Savings!

• This video introduces the concept of passive homes, which consume far less energy than typical homes.
  
• Students will learn about the main design features, certification requirements, cost considerations, energy savings, and climate benefits of passive homes. 

Positives

• This video is engaging and uses many visuals to keep students interested in the complex topics. 
• The video also shows how passive homes can go a step further to become Net Zero, meaning they produce as much or more energy than they consume.

Additional Prerequisites

• An ad plays before the video begins and there is sponsored content (at 7 minutes, 45 seconds until 8 minutes, 32 seconds) in the middle of the video.
  
• Before watching, students should have an understanding of energy consumption at the household level.

Differentiation

• Cross-curricular connections could be made with engineering, economics, and social studies classes regarding the different aspects of passive home design, costs, and benefits. 
• This video lends itself well to group work, where students can be assigned to one of the five major pillars of passive home design to further research: insulation, avoiding thermal bridges, optimal orientation, being airtight, and ventilation.
  
• Although this resource discusses new home construction, there are many ways to increase the efficiency of existing homes that students could research, such as using efficient appliances, adding insulation, using window shades and fans, adding solar-tube lights, and other low-cost solutions.
• Other resources related to this topic include this hands on project about a solar house, this video about daylighting, and this article about how our individual and household actions can fight climate change.