Hershey Upper School’s Environment-Friendly Passive House Design
A little-known fact about Hershey Montessori’s Upper School is that its ninth through twelfth grade academic building was the first in the Midwest United States designed and constructed with Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) criteria, making it both environmentally friendly and energy-saving through design technology.
What is Passive House?
Passive house design is a construction standard that uses architectural design to reduce energy consumption for heating, cooling, and lighting. The goal is to create comfortable, environmentally friendly buildings that require little to no energy input to control the indoor climate.
“Passive House” was established by the Passivhaus Institute in Darmstadt, Germany in 1996, and was one of the pioneering concepts for building low-energy houses and is today a leading building standard. The design is focused on making the best use of the “passive” influences in a building – like sunshine, shading, and ventilation instead of air conditioning and central heating. These “passive influences,” combined with high levels of insulation and airtightness, make it possible to use 90 percent less energy than a typical structure.
Passive House buildings provide better indoor comfort due to consistent temperatures and good air quality. They also reduce internal and external noise due to the high levels of insulation – a wonderful and greatly appreciated added benefit!
Why did we do it?
Hershey Montessori School is committed to the care of our environment and thus committed to implementing as environmentally friendly and sustainable construction principles as possible.
We are proud to be the first school in the Midwest to be designed with the cutting-edge standards of the Passive House Institute of the United States. PHIUS building criteria has created significant savings in operation costs and reduced energy consumption. Additionally, it has resulted in a beautiful, comfortable environment for students and staff and is an excellent model for other public buildings.
For more information on Passive House design, visit the Passive House Institute United States website.