Short Course
Certified Passive House Tradesperson

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 from a theoretical and practical level.

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 delivering the first prefabricated certified Passive House in Australia. Through this business, he has continued to deliver precision fabricated projects performing to Passive House standard. 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.

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

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

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

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.