Brookfield completes state’s 1st Passive House.

Peter Rusin of the Colorado Energy Office stands in front of the state’s first certified Passive House.

The first “Passive House” in Colorado has been officially certified in the Midtown at Clear Creek community in Adams County, a few minutes drive north and northeast of trendy Denver neighborhoods.

The home, constructed by Brookfield Residential, is also believed to the the first in the nation constructed by a production homebuilder.

The super energy-efficient home was built at Brookfield’s Midtown development near West 68th Avenue and Pecos Street. The home, with 2,421 square feet of finished space and an unfinished basement, is priced at $569,990.

The Passive Home is projected to its owner thousands of dollars every year in utility costs, with expenditures of less than $80 per month.

Fewer than 60 homes in the U.S. have received official ‘Passive House’ certification by the Passive House InstituteU.S. .

“It has taken Colorado a long time to reach this milestone, because constructing a building that can actually meet the strict requirements of the Passive House standard and pass the rigorous review of PHIUS is a difficult task, ” said Lance Wright, president of the Colorado chapter of the Passive House Alliance U.S., a  public outreach arm of PHIUS.

“Just consider that our Colorado chapter of PHAUS is over two years old and, while we have several custom home projects under construction, Brookfield managed to complete its project first, ” he said.

A Certified Passive House must meet three strict standards of performance in terms of:

• Air-exchange (two-way, inside-to-outside), which cannot exceed 0.6 of every room, per hour.
• Energy usage (basic electricity), which cannot exceed 11.1 kilowatts per square foot annually.
• And BTU consumption (typically applying to heating and cooling), which cannot exceed 4,750 per square foot annually.

“When we embarked upon this project, we saw it as an opportunity to experiment in technologies that will improve production homes’ comfort, efficiency and durability,” said Brookfield Residential General Manager Perry Cadman.

“We’re committed to a vision that we call ‘Home Evolved,’ which includes an evolution ofresidential housing, with an unwavering search for changes that will result in improvements and, ultimately, perfection in residential building,” Cadman said. “The Passive House is the best example of this commitment and vision.”

The Brookfield Residential Passive House at 1787 W. 67th Ave., achieved its energy efficiency through a creative design of its outer walls, a tight thermal envelope that employs the latest scientific insulation techniques, the highest-performing windows, and the most modern HVAC system.