Passive House
Certified Passive House Builder and Consultant
Bensonwood is ready to build your new Passive House project today.
Vermont Passive House
Norwich, Vermont
Architects: A Zero Energy Design and Bensonwood Collaboration
Passive House Certifications
Certified PHIUS Builder
Certified PHIUS Consultant
Exceptionally energy efficient buildings for comfortable living
Certified PHIUS Builder
Passive House is the most rigorous building energy standard in the world
Bensonwood building enclosure systems have been capable of meeting these uncompromising standards of Passive House for over a decade.
High-Performance & Comfort
Bensonwood Passive House
Bensonwood’s scalable and PHlexible panelized building enclosure systems are suited for passive house performance. Passive House certification is based on a metric rather than a specific design solution and accounts for factors such as climate zone, orientation, square footage, and size and types of windows. This means that a single passive house solution will not work for all projects. Bensonwood’s customizable PHlex system can be applied to many projects to achieve Passive House levels of performance or certification.
Bensonwood Homes
Certified Passive House Builder and a Certified Passive House Consultant
Bensonwood Introduces
The PHlex Wall System
PH lex™
PHlexible Passive House Approach
Our building systems are adaptable to help you meet passive house performance. Framing depths and continuous insulation can be adjusted based on your design and climate zone.
Scalable to project specifications
Wall assemblies for any building design
Building material choices for budget
PHlex™
PHlexible Passive House Approach
PHlex walls are fully customizable to fit your project needs
Contact us for more information
A. INTERIOR FINISH
Custom specifications
B. SERVICE LAYER
Dimension to support services, additional insulation, and fastenings
C. AIR AND VAPOR CONTROL LAYER
OSB with taped seams (shear layer)
D. STRUCTURAL FRAMING & INSULATION @ 24" o/c
PHlexible exterior dimensions
E. Exterior Insulated Sheathing and Drainage Plane
PHlexible exterior dimensions
PHlex walls are fully customizable to fit your project needs
Contact us for more information
Durability | Air Quality | Energy Efficiency
Our Passive House Components
AIRTIGHTNESS
Our choice of building materials such as tapes, gaskets, and lumber all contribute to lower air tightness rates which improve the air quality and energy efficiency of the home.
MOISTURE MANAGEMENT
Our walls manage moisture by utilizing the smart vapor permeance benefits of OSB and the hygroscopic properties of cellulose. A semi-vapor open assembly allows for drying in both directions, making it ideal for all climates, and balanced, continuous mechanical ventilation manages interior humidity reducing the amount of moisture that enters the assembly.
FLASHING DETAILS
High-performance tapes used for flashing ensure that no water enters our panels. Roofing is weather tight upon installation with ZIP sheathing.
HEAT/ENERGY RECOVERY VENTILATION
Highly efficient energy and heat recovery ventilation systems are a requirement of the passive house, and deliver fresh air to the building while exhausting an equal amount of stale and moist air.
LOW/NO VOC MATERIALS
All materials in our homes are screened from an indoor air quality perspective, to avoid unhealthy materials and off-gassing.
CONTINUOUS INSULATION OPTIONS
Levels and material customization to your project requirements. Options for your climate, project design and structural requirements.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE WINDOWS
Save energy and increase comfort with triple glazed window options that meet the thermal requirements of Passive House.
HIGH-PERFORMANCE HEATING AND COOLING
Fossil fuel free, highly efficient, electric heating and cooling systems powered by renewable energy to achieve zero source energy consumption.
Bensowood builds
to these additional high-performance standards
High-Performance Prefabricated Construction
How We Build Passive Multifamily Units
Bensonwood building enclosure systems have been capable of meeting the rigorous passive house standards for over a decade. Multifamily projects designed and built with our enclosure systems can easily achieve PHIUS certified performance. A passive house results in long-term comfort for residents, low cost of ownership, and better health for our planet. Designers and developers can take advantage of Bensonwood's Tektoniks panels to incorporate our PHIUS-ready building systems into their designs.
Bensowood builds
to these additional high-performance standards
LET'S TALK.
Have a Multifamily Passive House project?
Talk with our dedicated Passive House team
LET'S TALK.
Have a Multifamily Passive House project?
Talk with our dedicated Passive House team
A Better Way to Build
The Prefab Homebuilding of the Future
Prefabricated components are built off-site at our facility and then assembled on-site. This method removes time and costs. Bensonwood began using off-site manufacturing with its timberframe division and applied the best practices to panel fabrication.
Computer-aided design
All components start out as 3D models and undergo a verification process for accuracy before any manufacturing begins.
Off-site Manufacturing
Our building systems division makes all precision prefab components in a dependable factory environment.
Finsishing Components
Finishing component installation happens in the factory, eliminating costly mistakes at the construction site.
Weatherproof BUndles
Bundles of weatherproof building elements shipped to the construction site arrive safely.
Site Assembly
Building components are easily assembled at the construction site with minimal waste.
Our Manufacturing
Bensonwood | Tektoniks | Unity Homes
Our new 110,000-square-foot production facility in southwestern New Hampshire will better serve the passive house market with our new Tektoniks building components brand. The efficient manufacturing technology of Tektoniks produces panels and air-tight building envelopes using our unique building systems for wall, floor and roof panels.
Our Capacity
Advancing in production and finishing
The production capacity and the amount of finishing involved in the component systems will increase for both Bensonwood and Unity Homes. Soon panels will be sent to job sites with wiring and siding preinstalled, and eventually completed bathrooms will be delivered as prebuilt pod systems.
PH lex™
Prefabricated Panelized Enclosure Systems
Passive House Performance for any Design
PHlex System
Bensonwood | Tektoniks | Unity Homes
The PHlex system can be applied to both single-family and multifamily projects with passive house performance goals. Benefits include design versatility and an enclosure system appropriate to the end-user and climate zone.
PHlex and More
Panelized Enclosures
Learn more about our other wall assemblies.
A Customized Approach
Scalable for PHIUS Certification
All of our standard panel designs can be adapted using greater framing depths and continuous insulation. Our wall, roof, and floor assemblies can be scaled for different insulation values, meaning projects can achieve PHIUS certification or performance.
High-performance prefab wall systems ready to get any project to PHIUS standards.
Prefabricated building components delivered.
Why we need more Passive Homes today
Residential and commercial buildings are responsible for an enormous quantity of global energy use, resource consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. Residential energy use accounts for 20% of the total US energy consumption
Energy Consulting | Sustainable Building
Meet Our Passive House Team
Both Bensonwood and sister company, Unity Homes, strive to achieve super-insulated, super-tight houses that often meet, and sometimes exceed, Passive House standards of airtightness while offering extraordinary durability, quality, comfort and wellness. We have a dedicated and certified Passive House team and energy consulting/sustainability staff to help you every step of the way in building your extremely energy-efficient passive house.
Hans Porschitz
Jay Lepple
Blog | Media | In the News
Learn More About Passive House
Read More in Our Blog
Passive House Articles
The New York Times: Business
Passive House: Can We Build in a Brighter Shade of Green?
Read the NYT article on the construction of The Vermont Passive House in Norwich, Vermont
Contact Our Professionals
Certifed Passive House Builders and Consultants
Prefer to talk in person?
Call Us
Monday - Friday 8:00AM to 4:00PM
