Noted Passive House expert, Tomas O’Leary, will be giving an introductory presentation entitled “What is Passive House Design?” on June 18th, at The Mercy Center, 167 Neck Rd. in Madison, 5:30-7:30 pm.
The term “passive house” refers to the most rigorous energy efficiency standard for both buildings and homes — reducing their ecological footprint to very low levels and resulting in typical energy savings for heating and cooling in the range of 80%.
The presentation, sponsored by Klearwall Industries, makers of energy-saving windows and doors, and Celebration Contracting, builders specializing in green and energy efficient construction, is aimed at anyone interested in learning more about energy efficient high performance buildings and homes, including architects, engineers, designers, contractors & building tradespersons, along with anyone in the general community with an interest in energy responsible design and building.
Though the passive house (‘passivehaus’) principle was discovered in the early 1990’s, and is in-force as a proven design and building energy efficient technology in Europe, designers & builders in the United States have been relatively slow to embrace and adopt the science and build passive house structures. There are estimated to be at least 25,000 passive buildings and homes in Europe to date, but current estimates suggest there are only about 100 certified passive house structures in the United States.
In conjunction with architect, Philippe Campus, Celebration Contracting is currently building what is believed to be the third certified passive house in Connecticut and due to their involvement on that project, was approached to host this event featuring Mr. O’Leary.
Mr. O’Leary is the Co-founder and Managing Director of the international Passive House Academy, as well as a founding partner at MosArt Architects, Dublin and New York City. Over the last 3 years alone, he has trained over 300 professionals to become Passive House Consultants and he will be in New York City presenting at the NY14 Passive House Conference and Expo in June.
“We understand that Tomas is a very engaging and dynamic speaker when it comes to sharing his passion, expertise and experience living in a passive home, so we feel very fortunate that we have the opportunity to hear what he has to share about passive house and design right in our own backyard. Specifically, The Mercy Center is also committed to preserving natural resources and the environment so they were a perfect fit for this event”, says Bill Freeman, of Celebration Contracting.
While there is no admission fee, registration is required. For more information or to register for this event, please contact Alicia Dolce at alicia@celebrationcontracting.com or call 203-627-6747.
