Here we share some observations about and snapshots of the Passive House we had built in Oakland County, Michigan. All photographs were taken by us unless otherwise noted.

One difficult part about building a Passive House is the inevitable need to make some compromises. For example, we are having trouble figuring out how to make a small interior wood stove meet the stringent requirements of a highly sealed thermal envelope. Yesterday we met with the personable owner of Heat ’n Sweep, a provider of hearths and other domestic fixtures, who is also interested in trying to find a code-compliant method of reducing conductive and convective losses in wood stoves. We have concerns that having a wood stove could make it difficult or impossible to achieve the Passive House standard. However, if we opt for a wood stove and our house misses the standard, we will still have a nice, well-insulated home. We will see how this plays out.