What’s a Passive House design? Here’s what L.A. can learn from Colorado’s worst fire as it looks to rebuild
as Los Angeles wildfires A family who lost everything in the worst wildfire in Colorado history, which left hundreds of homes in ruins, says there’s a better way to rebuild.
Three years ago, Erik Ela, his wife and his now 4-year-old son, Alex, lost their two cats and their home in the Marshall Fire. Alex’s birthday was two days away.
“We went through some things that I never thought you’d go through and I’m ready for it to happen again,” Ella said.
When it came time to rebuild, the Superior, Colorado, father wanted to make sure his new home was fireproof, so he chose a design concept called Passive House.
In traditional house designs, embers are often drawn into the house through roof vents during a fire. That’s one reason Los Angeles homes are burning from the inside out. Johny Rezvani, a supplier of passive home materials, says there are few places where embers remain in homes built with Passive design concepts.
A Passive House has only one air inlet, compared to the roof vents on most homes. A powerful filtration system is installed to control air flow, which helps prevent embers from entering.
“In extreme weather conditions, if you have to evacuate, what you would do is close the entrance,” Rezwani said.
In Los Angeles, where the historic Palisades and Eaton fires were fanned by strong Santa Ana winds, a house built on Passive Architecture principles is the only one still standing in its neighborhood.
Although the chances of surviving a fire are higher, the reason not all new homes are passively built is cost. According to the agency, building a Passive House can cost up to 7% more than a traditional house. Passive House Network.
Of the 300 homes rebuilt in the City of Superior, only 6 are Passive Houses. That’s despite a new Colorado law aiming to change how homes most threatened by wildfires are built.
“I’m shocked that we don’t require building standards,” said Democratic state Sen. Lisa Carter. “If your house is not well protected and you don’t do everything you can to mitigate fires and so on around your property, then you are putting your neighbours’ houses at risk.”
Carter pushed for the creation of the Colorado Wildfire Prevention Code Commission. It would identify areas with the highest wildfire threat and enforce mandatory wildfire building codes for the first time. In Colorado, one million buildings were built on Encounter or blend with natural areas Where there is a threat of wildfire. one One-third of U.S. homes are located in high-risk areas — That’s 44 million households.
As climate change creates windy and dry conditions that increase the risk of fires spreading rapidly, it’s time for some to rethink how they live with and rebuild from climate change.
