Through live webinars, interactive tutorials and online self-study, you'll gain a deep understanding of the Passivhaus standard, building physics, and the essentials of designing and detailing the building envelope and services. We'll introduce you to the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) software and you'll complete a whole PHPP and learn how to use it effectively to interrogate design. Printed manuals to support learning, practice questions throughout, tutorials and a dedicated revision session will ensure you are fully prepared to take the Certified Passivhaus Designer/Consultant exam.

You will be taught by the UK's leading Passivhaus experts - our trainers are all highly-experienced practitioners actively working in the sector, who'll share their practical insights into best practices and real-world challenges. In addition, ongoing access to the course materials for two years ensures you can turn to our library of site examples and specialist case studies on topics including educational buildings, large scale residential and retrofit approaches when you're tackling your own projects.

By the end of the course, you will:

• Understand the Passivhaus standard and how it provides a quality-assured route for achieving high building performance.
• Recognise the impact of design choices and how decisions on form factor, airtightness,thermal bridging, insulation, and glazing affect performance.
• Assess the impact of construction choices, considering multiple construction methods and understand how to detail common elements.
• Define design strategies to prevent summer overheating.
• Explore the principles of effective ventilation in Passivhaus buildings.
• Understand heating & hot water systems for Passivhaus and considerations for designing efficient heating and hot water distribution systems.
• Complete energy modelling using PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) software and gain proficiency in using it for design and analysis.
• Understand the role of a Passivhaus Designer/Consultant, what your responsibilities are and how to collaborate effectively on Passivhaus projects.

Course Modules:

Pre-course Essentials (4 hours)

A short guide to essential building physics and economics you'll use later in the course.

Building Fabric (30 hours)

Explore heat transfer, energy balance of buildings and how to achieve thermal comfort and avoid summer overheating in practice. Learn how the required values are calculated and what this means for building design. You'll learn how Passivhaus construction differs to standard practice, what’s required for airtightness and thermal bridge-free construction and how successful design follows through to what happens on site. Our course is full of real-life site photos and video content throughout showcasing what good looks like in reality.

Building Services for Passivhaus (15 hours)

Concepts, calculations and commissioning for ventilation design, heating systems and hot water distribution, plus a review of Primary Energy Renewable. Discoverbuilding services used in Passivhaus and what's different to business as usual,learning through interactive workshops how to interrogate services design at a high level and understand how services requirements can influence the overall building design.

PHPP - Introduction to Passivhaus Planning Package software (18 hours)

We'll guide you through the software, completing a whole PHPP spreadsheet and developing your understanding of the inputs, parameters and implications for building design. You'll understand how it can be used for both Passivhaus and other approaches such as AECB Carbonlite. We'll also touch on use of DesignPH.

Exam Preparation (8.5 hours)

Full support to get ready for the exam, including a live revision session to recapcore concepts, exam technique and tips, and plenty of practice questions plus a mock exam. Small-group tutorials at the end will cover any specific areas of concern.

Final exam (1.5 Hours)

Open book so you can use your own notes for support.

Pre-course requisites:

Bitesize Low Energy Design (20 hours) - included FREE with the full Designer course

Our foundation design course covers essential low energy design concepts and provides a solid base to the Passivhaus Designer training, so we now provide this FREE as part of the full course. You'll get access to the self-study material on confirmation of booking, with additional live online workshops to check and deepen learning.

NOTE: If you have already completed the Bitesize Low Energy Design Course separately please get in touch with the team to discuss.

Professionals seeking to design high-performance, low-energy buildings — architects, designers, engineers, sustainability consultants, building professionals – anyone aiming to become a Certified Passivhaus Designer/Consultant.

The live-online format and split-study schedule are useful for busy professionals expecting to combine work and study. You can also opt to take the course at your own pace and select individual modules to suit your timetable. Please contact us for further details.