| Sure climate matters, however your assertion seems to be incorrect. > Almost all Passivhauses rely on: very heavy insulation, R-40 to R-60 walls, R-50 to R-90 roofs, and often R-30 to 50 sub-slab insulation, triple-glazed low-e windows, and exceptional avoidance of thermal bridges (except for wood framing) ... from [1] While Minnesota requires significantly less insulation: > Wood frame wall insulation: R-20 or 13+5 (CZ6), R-21 (CZ7) Foundation or crawl space insulation: R-15 insulation for concrete masonry foundations and R-10 applied to the exterior of the wall; R-10 continuous insulation is allowed on the exterior of the foundation wall if the air leakage rate is below 2.6 ACH50 Duct insulation: Depending on the location, R-3.3 to R-8 and vapor or weather retarder might be required
from [2] To compare to a much more comparable climate. In Sweden the U-value (metric units) of a window must be better than 1 W/m^2K, Minnesota building standard requires a U-factor (imperial) of better than 0.32 Btu/h·ft2·F which corresponds to a U-value (metric units) of 1.82 W/m^2K. Note lower is better, so for a similar climate the European code requires almost twice as good windows. [1] https://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-025-the-p... [2] https://www.tradesmance.com/career-central/minnesota-insulat... |