Presenter: Lindsay Rasmussen
Co-Presenter: Erik Schmidt, Ashley Tuffo, Annie Chiang
Mentor: Alison Kwok, Architecture
Oral Presentation
Major: Architecture
In August of 2013, the first affordable, multifamily housing project in the United States to reach Passive House (PHIUS) certification was completed in the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon. The 54-unit Stellar Apartment complex was funded by the Saint Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County (SVdP) as part of their community development and outreach in the Eugene-Springfield region. Each of the complex’s 12 buildings complies with Oregon State’s Earth Advantage (EA) standards, except one, which reaches further and meets Passive House (PH) certification. It was hypothesized that the PH units would perform 60% better than the EA units. The Stellar Research Team consists of a group of undergraduate and graduate researchers who have been monitoring and evaluating the energy use and indoor environmental quality of two buildings in the complex over a two year period. This project offers an analysis of the first year-and-a-half of energy and heating performance outcomes for the PH and EA buildings. Early findings show that occupants of the PH units are using approximately 50% less space heating energy than occupants in the EA units. There was a lag time of about one week before PH occupants turned on their space heater as compared to their EA neighbors in the colder season. Additionally, the overall energy use averages are of similar proportion, with PH units using 35% less energy in total. Throughout the research process data were reported back by the student research team to SVdP and the architects to better inform their future projects.