South Dakota Passive House

The basis for our consulting work became the LEED Silver certified “Jackrabbit Grove Residential Hall” expansion project, at the time under construction on the the South Dakota State University campus in Brookings and ultimately provided living quarters for around 800 students. We analyzed the typical architectural design, construction methods, assemblies and systems, as well as the thermal bridging and other building science concerns of the base building, and subsequently outlined what would change to upgrade to the Passive House building energy standard. We then energy modeled both the base building, as well as the Passive House building and provided life cycle cost analysis for both—finding that the initial investment costs would only increase by 10-12% while annuitized annual ownership costs would be the same, or slightly lower. At the same time, we provided a catalogue of tangible and intangible advantages of high-performance building, such as the overall increase in build quality and associated durabiliyt, substatially increased occupuant comfort, reduced carbon-impact and overall improved sustainability.

We delivered our findings and report personally to the Governor in a workshop, during which we also illustrated the path to adoption of the Passive House building energy standard.