PH-Tools?

PH-Tools is the umbrella project encompassing all of the various software tools we’ve been building to make Passive House energy modeling faster, easier and more fun. All of our tools are open-source and free for your use.

We are practicing Passive House Designers (PHI and Phius), working mostly in the NYC region of the U.S. We have had the good fortune to be part of the Passive House community here in the States since some of our very first high-performance projects back as far as 2009.

Why PH-Tools?

Having worked on huge numbers Passive House projects over the years - we have experienced first hand how difficult, time-consuming, confusing, and frustrating the modeling and certification process can be for the design professionals involved. Many years ago, we set out to use software to help us make this process easier, and it has!

We think Passive House is a great idea, and a really useful framework for designers, builders and building-owners. We believe that if we can help smooth out some of the headaches and roadblocks in the design and engineering process, more folks can take advantage of the Passive House ideas to build better buildings.

Are the Tools Really Free?

All of the tools here have been created to help us do our own jobs as Passive House Designers better, faster, more easily, and with fewer errors. We are happy to share these tools with the broader Passive House community in the hopes that others will also find them useful. Be warned though: these tools are built mainly with ourselves in mind, so they may not be as user-friendly as some might wish. We’ve worked hard to simplify them and make them easier to understand, but they are still professional tools with the experienced practitioner in mind.

But yes: PH-Tools are all open-source and free. So go ahead and give them a try.

Contact us

If you want to contact us regarding any aspect of the PH-Tools project or individual tools, email us at: phtools@bldgtyp.com

We would love to hear from you if you’ve tried any of the tools here, or have any thoughts on what we’re up to?

Interested in Contributing?

PH-Tools are open-source and freely available. If you would like to contribute in any way, check out the PH-Tools Contributing docs to get started.