The Perlita Passive House LA: An All Electric Passive House retrofit in Atwater Village (Los Angeles), reaching Net Zero with only 12 Solar panels. Living Building Challenge Petal certified project (Energy, Health, Beauty)The Perlita House is a 2,120 sqft Passive House and a Net Zero renovation of a 1,100 sqft single family house. The goal of the Perlita Project was to demonstrate the performance and the cost effectiveness of the Passive House Institute standard in the Southern California’s climate, showing a path to improve drastically buildings’ energy consumption and comfort. After 12 months of operation, the 16 solar panels all-electric house produced 107% of the home’s energy consumption, plus the electricity used by the electric vehicle used for all local commute.The extra cost for the building envelop was 3.5% and almost entirely compensated by the reduction of solar panels required to reach Net Zero Energy compared to a standard Title24 construction, taking in consideration the 64% reduction of heating and cooling consumption. The accuracy of the Passive House energy modeling was confirmed, once again, by the Net Zero Petal certification the house received from the Living Building Institute in September 2019.The EUI for the house was measured at 12.5 kBtu/sqft.year making it three times more energy efficient than the average Los Angeles’ buildings* (Maximum Passive House building EUI is 14.8 kBtu/sqft.year). The Passive House standard, is the leading international low energy building with more than 100’000 buildings of all kinds. Hopefully the Perlita Passive House, first completed Passive House in the Los Angeles area will inspire Owners, Developers, Builders and Designers to make more energy efficient buildings which is a key aspects of our all renewable energy future.
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