Built to Perform.
Passive House Design-Build in
Western North Carolina.
What Is Passive House?
When it comes to high-performance building, Passive House is the top of the ladder. It's the most rigorous standard out there.
Passive House is a building standard that gets a home's energy use down to a fraction of what a normal house needs, by designing it right from the start instead of adding equipment to compensate for a bad one. But it's not just an energy standard. Done right, it produces a home that's more comfortable, healthier to live in, and built to last, on top of using a fraction of the energy. Heating and cooling energy drops by up to 90% compared to a typical code-built home, and the comfort and air quality that come with it are just as much the point.
It comes down to five principles, working together.
For more info check out our Blog
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Airtightness
Not sealed shut, built controlled. Air only moves through the house where and when you want it to, instead of leaking randomly through gaps, cracks, and bad framing. We confirm it with a blower door test, not just assume it.
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Super-insulation
Runs continuously around the entire envelope so there's no weak point for heat to escape through.
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High-performance windows and doors
Rated and installed to actually perform at that rating, not just labeled that way.
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Controlled mechanical ventilation
An ERV runs constantly in the background, swapping stale indoor air for fresh outdoor air while recovering most of the energy that would otherwise be lost in the exchange. A tight house isn't a stuffy house. It's a house that controls its air instead of leaving it to chance.
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Minimize thermal bridging
Every connection, corner, and penetration in the structure gets planned to eliminate the weak points where heat normally escapes. It's the detail most builders skip, and it's often the difference between a house that performs on paper and one that performs in real life.
Why It Matters
Lower cost of ownership. Energy costs keep rising, and there's no end in sight. A home that uses a fraction of what a standard house needs is worth more every year that trend continues. Add in the maintenance side: a well-sealed envelope controls moisture, and moisture is what causes most of the expensive problems in a house down the road.
Safety when it counts. A tight, well-insulated home holds its temperature. In a power outage or an ice storm, that means staying livable for days instead of hours. In Western NC, we get both extremes, and we get outages.
Part of the solution. Homes are one of the biggest energy consumers we have. Every one built this way pulls less from the grid, for as long as it stands. We want the homes we build to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. For our clients, and for the future.
Built to Be Affordable
We are a Certified Passive House Consultant, so this expertise lives in house instead of somewhere outside it.
As a baseline, we're committed to designing and building every home to this standard moving forward. Every project gets that consultant-level input built in, not layered on as an extra service. If certification is something you're after, we can also provide full certification through PHIUS.
Having that capability in house, instead of bringing in outside consultants, is what closes the gap on affordability. It means this level of building science isn't reserved for budgets that can absorb an extra consultant fee. It's just how we build.
Curious what high-performance building actually costs on your project? Let's find out together.
Consulting Services
We also work with architects and builders in the region who want Passive House expertise on a project without a CPHC on staff. Energy modeling, envelope design review, constructability input, at whatever stage makes sense.
If you're working on a high-performance project in Western NC and want a CPHC at the table, get in touch.
Contact Us Today!
Ready to bring your vision to life? Contact FS Builders to schedule a consultation and discover how our full-service design-build approach can simplify and accelerate your construction journey.
We'll reach out within two business days to schedule your consultation and determine how to turn your project into a reality.
Design-build contractor and Certified Passive House Consultant serving Asheville and Western North Carolina.
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