About the course

About the course

In this course, building tradespeople will learn the skills and knowledge required to understand how to build to the international Passive House Standard. This 5 day course covers the building envelope and mechanical systems specialities. 

What is Passive House?

The Passive House Standard is not a regulation but a methodology and certification system for creating thermally efficient buildings. Passive House buildings allow space heating and cooling related energy savings of up to 90% compared with typical building stock and over 75% compared to average new builds. Although Passive House buildings have been around internationally for 25 years, at last, these super energy efficient buildings are now appearing in Australia.

Passive House buildings show great diversity in aesthetics, size, construction methods and materials. The following five details enable buildings to achieve the Passive House standard:

  1. exceptionally high levels of thermal insulation
  2. well insulated window frames with double or triple low-e glazing
  3. thermal bridge free construction
  4. air tight building envelope
  5. comfort mechanical ventilation, with highly efficient heat recovery

These principles, good orientation, window shading and efficient design comprise a very thermally comfortable and energy efficient building.

The Passive House Sector

There are 152 Certified Passive House Designers and Consultants in Australia and potentially hundreds of clients who want to build to this internationally recognised standard. Growing client demand for high performance, thermally comfortable and energy efficient buildings will provide work for specialist builders and tradespeople. However, there are only 125 certified Passive House Tradespeople in Australia. Consider upskilling, becoming internationally accredited and improving your market edge.

Becoming Passive House Accredited

The course offers the opportunity to sit the examination set by the Passivhaus Institut (Germany) and takes place worldwide. On successfully passing the exam, you will receive the internationally recognised accreditation as

  • Certified Passive House Tradesperson - Building Envelope Specialist or
  • Certified Passive House Tradesperson - Mechanical Services Specialist or both

Certification as a Passive House Tradesperson by the Passive House Institute (PHI), Darnstadt, Germany will only occur on successful completion of the PHI exam which will be held at Box Hill Institute (date to be confirmed).  Additional fees will be charged to sit this exam, which also covers five years of registration with PHI if successful.

Pro Clima Australia Pty Ltd offer a Passive House Tradespersons Scholarship. Enrolled applicants have the opportunity to apply. The successful applicant will receive full subsidy for the Australia Passive House Association Certified Passive House course delivered by Box Hill Institute and the externally assessed exam. To apply, visit the Pro Clima website.

Passive House Course and Exam Enquiries: passivehouseenquiries@boxhill.edu.au

 

Course Details

Back

Fees & Schedule


To express interest in this course, please complete a Course Enquiry or phone 1300 269 445.

Teachers


Burkhard Hansen

Burkhard Hansen is passionate about energy efficiency and living comfort.

To Burkhard, Passive House standards are the foundation of a healthy living environment.

Through modern engineering and considerations of building physics, Burkhard aims for Passive House to be a mainstream, affordable and readily available option. He has been involved in successfully executed airtight and energy efficient prefab construction methods in Europe and is keen to be part of the driving force of this change in Australia. To sustain and support this change, he believes it is vital to teach the awareness, knowledge, skills and understanding of building performance, both theoretical and practical.

Burkhard has over 13 years of experience working in various countries around the world implementing Passive House standards.

Since being in Australia, Burkhard has founded Carbonlite Enterprises and has successfully delivered the first prefabricated certified Passive House in Australia. Through this business, he has continued to deliver precision fabricated projects performing to Passive House standards. Although there have been challenges due to the lack of experience and knowledge of airtight buildings, teaching the awareness to designers, engineers and trades has shown these challenges can be overcome.

Course Content


Depending on the building envelope or mechanical services options the learning aims are:

  • define the Passive House Standard and basic principles of designing a Passive House
  • understand and be able to calculate R values for opaque building elements
  • understand the importance of thermal bridging and airtightness
  • locate the correct positioning of the airtightness and vapour control layers in relation to the insulation and structural layers in a range of typical construction types
  • understand the correct handling procedures for insulation materials and describe how the integrity of insulation is affected when wet or damaged
  • study a range of insulation types to different construction types
  • outline the steps and procedures involved in the performance of an airtightness test using the Passive House methodology
  • learn the correct airtightness treatment at door and window openings, service penetrations, joints vertically and horizontally, corners and where the wall meets other constructional elements
  • outline the methods available for avoiding thermal bridging including information on any proprietary product used to assist the process
  • identify suitable Passive House glazing and frame types and compare them to those commonly used in construction
  • understand thermal bridge values for Passive House suitable window and door installations in different construction types
  • identify and accurately interpret data from PHPP files to determine construction details
  • understand Passive House mechanical systems, including heat recovery ventilation equipment design, sizing, installation and maintenance
  • outline the key elements of ventilation ducting in Passive House projects and ensure high performance in terms of airtight and highly insulated penetrations
  • summarise supplementary heating and cooling in Passive Houses, technologies, sizing and installation

More details on the learning targets can be obtained by going to the Passive House Trades website.  

Prerequisites


You should be a qualified and experienced tradesperson or a building design professional to benefit from this qualification.

Materials Required for class


All learning materials are provided including the CPHT combined building envelope and mechanical training manual.

Target Audience


This course is aimed at tradespersons and building contractors who wish to expand their business and trade skill areas towards the international energy efficient standards associated with passive house construction. Building design professionals may also choose to take the course by way of introduction to the Passive House standard before going on to taking the Certified Passive House Designer course.

Is this the course for you?
Enrol now or enquire about this course.

Courses

Interested in Trades & Transport?
Discover more

Discover Trades & Transport
Discover Trades & Transport