The Karuna House Is A Tripple Threat In Eco-Building

The Karuna House, designed by Hoslt Architecture and built by Hammer & Hand, is the first green home in the world to receive Passive House (PHIUS ), Minergie-P-ECO and LEED for Homes Platinum certifications, three of the most ambitious green building standards in the world.

Located on an Oregon hillside overlooking wine country, the Karuna House is absolutely stunning architecturally and in its sustainable design. The homeowner, an advocate for smart climate policy, was motivated to create this structure as a case study for the future of green home building.

The Karuna House is a certified Passive House, meaning that the building is well insulated, airtight, has great air quality and reduces heating and cooling energy by 90 percent. The Karuna house features magnificent windows that not only contribute to its aesthetics, but also to the home’s energy efficiency, instead of energy deficiency as many windows and doors do. To successfully pull off the airtight requirements of a passive home, the team of builders used triple glazed, high solar heat gain windows. Even though comparably the windows are significantly less insulated than the walls surrounding them, they are still net-positive in energy performance because they capture so much solar light. A successfully designed Passive House can be heated by a heater the size of a hair dryer, with the rest of the heat distributed through the home from people, appliances, lights and the sun.

The Karuna House uses photovoltaic solar panels to achieve net-zero, meaning that all of the energy used by the home annually—including lighting, hot water, heating, ventilation and a well-pump—is produced on site. While other homes can reach net-zero with a solar PV system, the Karuna House is different in that its solar PV system is relatively small compared to its size. The smart mechanics and sustainable design of the Karuna House allow the home to run on very little energy.

The Minergie-P-ECO certification, developed in Switzerland, promotes a higher quality of life and reduced energy consumption. The Minergie-P component requires that homes consume 80 to 90 percent less energy than a conventional building. It also requires that the construction cost only be 10 percent higher than a standard building, showing the attainability and affordability of healthy and sustainable housing. The ECO component of the Minergie P-ECO certification is primarily focused on health—environmental health, production health and occupant health. Minergie-ECO requirements include a high use of daily light instead of electricity, sound insulation, a minimization of indoor air pollutants from building materials, high proportions of recycled building materials and building materials with low environmental impact.

Finally, the Karuna House met the requirements needed for the LEED for Homes Platinum certification. The home received 101.5 points out of a potential 100 points ( 10 bonus points), well surpassing the 80 points needed to achieve LEED Platinum. There are 5 main credit categories required for a LEED certification: sustainable sites credits, water efficiency credits, energy and atmosphere credits, materials and resources credits and indoor environmental quality credits. To learn more about LEED read our FAQ: “What does LEED mean?”

To learn more about the construction of the Karuna House, visit www.hammerandhand.com