Individuals, buildings and building components can all achieve Passive House Certification, recognized worldwide as the ultimate performance standard for energy efficient design and construction. All the international Passive House Certification programs, standards and exams are run by the Passivhaus Institut (PHI) in Darmstadt, Germany.

Whether you’re a designer, engineer, builder or just an interested homeowner, you can register for our Certified Passive House Designer (CPHD) course, and if you wish you can pursue qualification via the international CPHD exam. Kindly note that this exam is administered exclusively by the Passivhaus Institut, and entry to the exam is, for all exam providers worldwide, a separate purchase (typically CAD $500 fee). Since Covid, PHI has moved to an online exam format, meaning that anyone with the appropriate security software can sit it at their home or office. Currently here at passivehouse.ca, we are not running this online exam, however other Passive House organizations (including PHI) can be contacted to check the next available exam dates.

Hundreds of building components from manufacturers around the world have now been Certified by PHI, as reaching the highest levels of performance, and all are listed in the international database here, including over 200 windows. Note that very few Certified products are yet available from Canadian manufacturers, because our domestic products typically do not come close to meeting the minimum performance standards.

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Professional Certification

If you have already taken our prerequisite 6-day CPHD classroom course (or an equivalent course elsewhere) you can study at home for the next sitting of the international exam via our online exam prep course. The CPHD exam is a 3-hour, open book exam which is offered simultaneously in over 20 countries worldwide, several times per year. It is the most demanding and elite qualification available in energy efficient building design, and requires a high level of preparation and knowledge to pass. CanPHI recommends 2 – 4 weeks of preparation for all candidates before sitting this exam, and our online prep course comprises over 100 exam-type questions, each will full worked solutions, to help you prepare.

The next opportunity to sit the exam will be on Saturday 12 March, 2016 in either Ottawa or CalgaryWe regret that we cannot offer the exam at other locations at this time.

Building Certification

Passive House Certification is a rigorous quality assurance process that determines whether a building meets all requirements of the international Passive House Standard. Meeting this elite standard is a confirmation that the building will achieve the highest levels of occupant comfort, indoor air quality and energy performance.

Details and requirements of how to Certify a Passive House building are listed here. Note that Certification is done remotely, and does not include either monitoring or site visits by the Certifier, so they can be based in any part of the world and still certify your project.

CanPHI strongly recommends a ‘pre-certification’ or ‘design stage review’ approach to certification – i.e. contact the Certifier and have your design and PHPP reviewed before starting construction!

See List of PHI-Accredited building Certifiers >