The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) online course

Learn how to model a full residential project in PHPP

Home|Passive House courses for Designers and Consultants|The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP)

What is PHPP?

The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) is a powerful design tool used for designing high-performing buildings, such as those that meet the Passive House standard. Based within Microsoft Excel, PHPP is a 2D tool that produces far faster results than 3D modelling software while delivering an accuracy rate of 95 percent. This makes it an ideal application for economically optimising designs.

PHPP is required for use in Passive House design and by Passive House building certifiers. It is useful at all stages of the design and planning process, as levels of detail can be slowly built up. At its most basic level, PHPP is a quality-check tool which applies factors to your project such as the laws of physics, geo-location data and the local climate. Because the tool is based on well-established scientific theory, the results produced are a close reflection of reality and can be used to make decisions around performance, sustainability, and economics.

PHPP

Image credit: Passive House Institute

About this course

This two-day course aims to familiarise you with the basics of PHPP and to put you in a position to create your first building model using the tool.

The course involves hands-on training and is draws upon material and concepts used in the Passive House Designer Course. It will also provide you with an overview of the Passive House strategy and philosophy.

Coursework involves completing the PHPP worksheets which together will form the basis if your first PHPP model. Along the way, you will learn how to optimise and improve your design, to make product choices and to optimise your building envelope build-ups. Upon completion of the course, you will be able to model residential buildings and optimise your designs in terms of performance, sustainability and economics.

Course Content

Learning objectives

Passive House concept

  • The Passive House standard and its parameters
  • The challenge of energy storage
  • A renewable-energy future
  • How to incorporate shading devices and local conditions

designPH

  • Verification and certification worksheets
  • Building envelope worksheets
  • Building services worksheets
  • Types of hidden screeds
  • The Northern Hemisphere issue

PHPP interface

  • How to manually enter 3D model data
  • Why designPH, Bim2PH and Passive link
  • Working with climate data
  • Finding mistakes
  • Optimising the design

Course dates & fees

Sorry, there are no upcoming dates for this course.

$597 (including GST)
  • Live ONLINE PHPP Course
  • –
  • 09:00 – 18:00 AEDT (GMT+10:00)
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Course details

Prerequisites

A solid understanding of the Passive House approach and basic building physics is required. It is highly recommended that you first complete the Passive House Designer course.

Materials Required for class

This course is conducted remotely with students participating and accessing study materials via the internet. It is the responsibility of students to ensure they have an adequate data connection. Speeds of 3 MBPS are required for the online course. Students need to supply their own PC or Mac computer, with Microsoft Excel.

Materials provided for class

Students will have access to live sessions. The slide sets used in the course will be provided in PDF format. However, you may also have a printed version in your Designer course workbook.

Additionally, handouts and exercises are provided in a downloadable PDF format, SketchUp file format or as Microsoft Excel files.
Passive House Planning Package software is provided in the form of unlicensed PHPP Workshop Version 9.6a with modified algorithms.

Is this course for you?

This course is aimed at people who have completed the Passive House Designer course and wish to further expand their skillset.

Access

The PHPP course runs over two full days, during which students have live access to teachers.

Teachers

Daniel Kress

Daniel started his career in the construction sector as a carpenter employed on sites in his native Germany. He next worked in Ireland on what was then the world’s biggest modular residential project. After 10 years on the trades side of building, Daniel completed a Master of Civil Engineering and worked as a researcher on EU sustainable building projects.

Daniel has been based in Australia since 2015, and in 2017 he founded the Smart Plus Academy. His vision is to help build a more sustainable construction sector and to promote dwellings that are comfortable and liveable while using minimal energy.

Daniel is a Certified Passive House trainer and through his work at the Smart Plus Academy and other institutions has helped train more than 50 per cent of the certified Passive House professionals in Australia today. Daniel’s philosophy is to “inspire and lead with passion and love” and “to contribute to society through teaching that inspires growth”.

Alex Slater

Alex holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and is passionate about sustainable construction and the architecture that enables it. He began working in the sector in 2010 as an architectural draftsman and has since worked as a designer, sustainable design consultant and architectural tutor. Alex is committed to building a better world for everyone and has been involved in a range of charitable pursuits, including the Cambodian Kids Foundation and Feeding the Needy.

Alex has been a certified Passive House designer since 2018 and joined the teaching staff of Smart Plus Academy in 2021.