Passive house certified windows

What is Passive House?

Passive House is a quickly emerging standard that requires buildings to use an extremely small amount of energy for their heating and cooling needs. This method was first developed in Germany and has since spread throughout Europe and North America. Passive Houses are very well-insulated and virtually airtight. These buildings require extremely low amounts of energy for heating and cooling. Heating requirements are primarily satisfied through passive solar gain and the energy produced by people and electrical equipment. The Passive House method of construction has the potential to dramatically reduce society's energy consumption, and therefore radically reduce our carbon emissions.

For more information about the Passive House standard, see the . PHIUS offers trainings and building certifications. To get involved with the Passive House community, get in touch with your local chapter of the the . Zola is a proud sponsor of the Passive House Alliance US.

Passive House Benefits:

• Extremely energy efficient, using up to 90% less energy for heating/cooling than conventional buildings
• Very comfortable due to more uniform interior temperatures
• Increasingly popular with proven results: over 15, 000 Passive House buildings (including single family and multi-family houses, schools, and office buildings) have been built in Europe already with many projects in the U.S. already completed
• Outstanding indoor air quality due to a continuous supply of fresh air
• Reduced carbon footprint through reduced energy consumption

What is a Passive House window?

High performance passive house windows, such as Zola Windows, are a key ingredient in this revolutionary approach to sustainable design. Passive Houses must be extremely air-tight and well-insulated, and it is impossible to achieve this in a building without extremely well crafted windows. For a detailed diagram of the features we employ to achieve these results, check out the page, Anatomy of a Super Window.

Passive House windows are:

• Airtight
• Highly insulating
• Available with high SHGC glass

Which Zola window do you need for your Passive House project?

Triple glazed windows are an essential component of Passive House projects. We suggest you consider the following triple-glazed Zola Passive House windows for your Passive House building:

A precision-crafted, all-wood window with aluminum rain guards for increased durabilty. With an overall U value of 0.14 (R 7), performance is slightly less than the ThermoPlus Clad™ line (with a more affordable price to match), but the entire outer frame of our Thermo Wood™ Passive House windows can be overinsulated for enhanced performance. Periodic refinishing of the exterior wood will be necessary over the life of the window, although we factory finish with the most durable, weather-resistant paints on the market.

The go to Passive House window for projects on a budget. Our Thermo uPVC offers outstanding performance (U=0.14/R 7) and low maintenance at a price that can't be beat.

*We specialize in Passive House windows and doors. However, if you are not aiming for such high energy performance, we also have more affordable, double-glazed options that still outperform many so-called high performance windows on the market (our double glazed options include, and our very affordable double-glazed uPVC). For a performance overview, check out this chart.