Why Passive House Matters

Clients for residential and commercial building projects are ever more aware of the need to build sustainably. Dramatic weather changes across Australia are motivating people to change the way they want to live and build.

Recent air pollution caused by bushfire smoke and sand storms demonstrate the need for airtight buildings with controlled ventilation, so it's important for all builders and tradespeople to learn new technology and construction methods to create super-energy efficient and healthy buildings.

At Box Hill Institute, we have initiated advanced training in prefabricated timber and the Passive House (Passivhaus) Standard to ensure our graduates have world class knowledge in sustainable building.

The Passive House Standard is one of the most rigorous sustainability standards in the world. It's been around more than 25 years and is widely applied across the world in hot and cold climates. It's a design and construction methodology for creating extremely thermally-efficient buildings. These buildings allow for space heating and cooling-related energy savings of up to 90%.

Passive House buildings are installed with an energy recovery ventilation system that preheats or precools incoming fresh air using the stable indoor temperature. Building an energy efficient, airtight structure that always has fresh, filtered air has many benefits, including low energy bills, healthy indoor air quality, comfortable temperature control and a building that is acoustically superior in relation to external noise.

Box Hill Institute first started delivering the Passive House training in Australia in 2014 and there has been exponential growth in the Standard and the construction of Passive House buildings.

Certified Passive House Tradesperson

The Certified Passive House Tradesperson course is a five day sustainability ‘boot camp’ held at our Lilydale Lakeside campus, followed by the Certified Passive House Tradesperson Examination on the sixth day. This international qualification is for builders and tradespeople to allow them to build to the Passive House Standard.

The course teacher, Burkhard Hansen, has over 18 years’ experience in prefabricated timber process and building to the Passive House standard. He has travelled and worked for numerous companies around the world. 

Pro Clima Australia offers scholarships for many of our Passive House courses and exams. To find out more, email Passive House Enquiries at passivehouseenquiries@boxhill.edu.au.