CASE STUDY: Award-Winning 多户家庭的 Phius Project

Project Background 

Starting in March 2020, Center for Energy and Environment’s (CEE) New 首页s team helped the Verdant Apartments, an 82-unit affordable housing building in St. Paul, achieve the Passive House Institute U.S. certification (Phius+). This is the first Phius+ certified multifamily building in St. Paul, and only the second in all of Minnesota. This building is 93,010 square feet and during final testing, was tighter (at 3200 cfm50 total air leakage) than many existing single-family homes. The project officially received the Phius+ certification in 2022, and in 2023 won Best Affordable Housing project at the 2023 Phius Passive Projects Design Competition.  

Inspection and Testing

CEE played a crucial role in helping this project reach the Phius+ certification by providing recommendations early in the building process to maximize efficiency throughout the building, and CEE’s in-house Phius+ rater, 杰克Selstad, performed testing and verification throughout the process to ensure the building was on track to achieve Phius+ certification. To meet all certification requirements, CEE helped prepare the building by ensuring all pre-requisite certifications would also be achieved (EPA’s ENERGY STAR and Indoor airPlus and DOE’s Zero Energy Ready 首页s).  

During construction, CEE performed frequent insulation inspections, mid-construction blower door tests, air leakage test of the HVAC ductwork, and assisted with testing and balancing the whole building Energy Recovery Ventilation Unit. Towards the end of construction, CEE performed final testing and verification to ensure the project met or exceeded all the stringent performance targets of Phius+. Once final testing was completed, the project was submitted to a third-party verification through the RESENET and Phius quality assurance teams. After the third-party verification process was complete, the building received Phius+, Energy Star 多户家庭的 New Construction, EPA Indoor airPLUS, and DOE Net Zero Ready 首页s certifications.  

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