The gospel of the super-insulated "passive house" is spreading fast in Portland, where our moderate climate and local interest have created a perfect storm of enthusiasm.

Tad Everhart, who was recently certified as a passive-house consultant, has launched a whole-house retrofit of his 1997 Southeast Portland home. He is among a dozen or so passive-house enthusiasts who have launched projects recently in the greater Portland area.

In addition creating a super-insulated house that eliminates the need for a furnace, Tad is hoping to set an example for others to follow.

"We all need to do everything we can," says Everhart, a lawyer who specializes in affordable housing. "I still have a house with a tailpipe."

He is in the process of remodeling his 2,100-square-foot home according to passive-house building standards, which allow no more than 0.6 air changes per hour. (In comparison, an Earth Advantage home allows seven air changes per hour.)

Once the remodel is complete, the family will no longer need the gas furnace, relying only on "internal" heat gains and a small amount of hydronic heating from the existing natural gas water heater.The passive-house concept -- which can cut the amount of energy homes consume by as much as 90 percent -- has the power to dramatically reduce our energy bills as well as our global carbon dioxide emissions.

The key to indoor comfort in a passive home is a central ventilation system that expels warm, stagnant air through a heat-recovery ventilator, or HRV. Everhart's HRV was shipped from the Netherlands; his super-insulated windows were manufactured by a company in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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