Passive House Cabin - Very Cold Climate

FGA, 2021

This is a design for a small Passive House Cabin located in a very cold climate in the northern U.S. As a Passive House, the primary goals are to reduce energy usage through a super-insulated building envelope (continuous around entire building envelope), triple-glazed windows, airtight construction with controlled whole building ventilation for exceptional air quality, and micro-load heating and cooling (in this case a small ductless heat pump). FGA served as both architect and Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC) on the project. Clad in simple, durable materials, the roof is corrugated metal. Walls are clad in ventilated rain screen, corrugated metal on the front and back and 6" stained cedar plank siding on the sides.

Passive House features:
- long east/west orientation (with a compact form) to maximize southern exposure for controlled winter solar gains
- R-52 wall design with TJI arctic wall
- R-80 roof and R-50 floor with continuous insulation
- triple-glazed Alpen fiberglass windows (u-value = 0.12)
- most space conditioning through an Renewaire 90 ERV system, additional through 12kbtu Mitsubishi Heat Pump