The Emerald Hills Retirement Residence project is turning heads. The preliminary envelope air leakage (blower door) test result was 0.017 CFM (50 PA) per square foot of building envelope. That is a whopping 28% of the Passive House maximum allowable air leakage.
The test, conducted by Rob Hosken of Building Performance Architecture (BPA), was the best blower door test that BPA has ever obtained in all their years of testing. In fact, the result for this 52 unit multi-family building represents less leakage than almost every single family home they have ever tested.
This achievement reflects the level of performance that is possible with committed and experienced teams. Under the architectural leadership of Avon Design Group & Thoughtful Balance, combined with the construction experience of Sota Construction, the Passive House & training expertise of AUROS Group and the commissioning & QA/QC acumen of AUROS Group and BPA, this high performance team ensured the architectural team's design was properly executed in construction.
By improving the air leakage performance from 0.06 CFM (50 PA) to 0.017 CFM (50 PA), our modeling shows a reduction in heating demand of about 10% and a 14% reduction in heating load.
Attention to detail is the difference-maker when expecting buildings to perform as they were designed. Experience tells us what matters and where to spend our time and effort.
