The Consultant who tests and measures the Passive House | Interview with Luc Plowman, Detail Green - Episode 12 (Season 8 - A SIMPLE GUIDE TO A SUSTAINABLE HOME)

Jan. 28, 2019

So you want to build or renovate a Passive House?

Your specialist team may need to include a Certified Passive House Consultant to help test and measure your Passive House design.

Let me introduce to you Luc Plowman, of Detail Green. Luc is a Passive House Certified Consultant and Certifier. In fact, he’s only one of 2 Passive House certified building certifiers in the country, and there’s only about 50 world-wide.

Luc was brought in on the Owl Woods Passive House project as Talina wasn’t certified yet. He assisted with reviewing and auditing the design, running it through the Passive House modelling tool, and providing feedback and advice on what needed to be included and amended in order for the home to reach required benchmarks.

SHOW NOTES:

Meet Luc Plowman, from Detail Green.

Detail Green has a wealth of building design, engineering, construction and sustainability performance experience.  This includes both local and international projects in residential, commercial, industrial and educational buildings across multiple green building standards.  

Luc is a Sustainability Engineer. With 15 years experience he has been involved in a wide range of green building and sustainability projects across Australia. He’s a director of Detail Green based in Beechworth, Victoria.  

With a background in the commercial building industry and a range of Green Building qualifications Luc provides specialist ESD input to all areas of the built environment.   

Luc is both a Certified Passive House Consultant & Building Certifier and one of Australia’s most experienced Passive House professionals.

In this episode, I ask Luc ...

• How do you describe what Passive House is?
• What is your role on the Owl Woods Passive House Project? Is this how you’re normally involved in projects?
• You’re a Certified Passive House Consultant ... what does that mean?
• How did you get involved in this type of work - what is your professional background? what made you choose to become a Certified Consultant?
• Is a Passive House not really a Passive House if a Certified Passive House Consultant is not involved?
• As a Certified Consultant, do you find that homeowners come find you because they really want to do this type of home and they’ve first done a lot of investigation and research themselves? Or do you find that there’s an interest, and then still lots of education to do on your part?
• What misconceptions do you see about Passive House?
• I know homeowners will say to me “oh my climate is quite mild, I don’t need to be this extreme about my home” ... what would you say to them? Is there anywhere that Passive House is ‘over the top’ as an approach?
• What key tips do you have for homeowners considering this as an approach for their renovation or new build?

Passive House can seem initially like a complex process of data and analysis. However, Luc shows us its fundamental aspects and the opportunity this methodology has to help us predict the performance of our homes - before we build them.

Listen to the episode now.

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