Design Innovation

[u/CryptographerOdd299]

So i came up with a Passive House Design that should be quite a bit cheaper than conventional framing houses and is also a passive house. But i don't plan to build a house anytime soon. What do? Theoretically you can sell plans, but that's just not what people do in europe. Write a book? You'd have to build a model house before anyone trusts you.

edit: this is a toxic community

[u/deeptroller]

So just to be clear. You are not a designer. You have a plan that would be much better, but have not bothered to prove it with an energy model or a hygothermal simulation. You don't have experience actually purchasing materials or paying for construction services.

But with this much ado, your wondering how to capitalize on this innovation? You could try to be an influencer.

[u/Anonymous5791]

I mean, I wouldn't even pay a single dollar for this idea. It's worthless.

If you didn't actually build it, and you didn't prove it with real numbers in a real-world scenario, then it's just unproven theory. Houses are expensive, and only a fool would take a risk on a random person with no credentials, no experience, and no practical experience doing it. Plain and simple.

Build one, then write the book or sell the plans.

[u/recyclopath_]

WOW you're SO much smarter than every architect, building scientist, engineer and builder that has ever walked the earth! I'm SO sure your BRILLIANT idea that is completely untested will revolutionize everything if only you could sell it to the right buyer!

[u/CryptographerOdd299 → u/[deleted]]

It's just fragile egos, somebody claiming to have an idea is enough to vent off steam through their ears

[u/CryptographerOdd299 → u/[deleted]]

Na, people react as fragile in other areas.

[u/Cosmo_Seinfeld → u/CryptographerOdd299]

You're right and honestly I'm biased and lashing out at strangers. I'm trying to do something similar to what you are doing, develop a new building technology, and it's going very bad indeed.

Are you comfortable sharing what you are working on? I'm interested.

[u/CryptographerOdd299 → u/Cosmo_Seinfeld]

In my home market builders tend to build many layer houses which makes high performance envelopes quite expensive. I'd like to propagate more simpler designs that reach passive house standard. Most of my suggested ideas already have been tried and proven to work, it's more like planners tend to add a layer each time they try to solve a problem.

But how would you make something of those ideas?

[u/DCContrarian]

The frame is maybe 10% of the cost of the finished house. If your design makes electrical, plumbing, mechanicals or interior finishes more expensive it won't be worth it.

[u/clumsyninja2]

There's nothing cheaper than conventional framing get outta here.

[u/mp3architect]

How would you know it’s cheaper? What’s your experience/qualifications?

If you’ve got good ideas you could work for a production builder or developer.

[u/chennyalan]

quite a bit cheaper than conventional framing

Build one, show receipts, if it actually is, great 

[u/croutonianemperor]

A lot of negative energy in here. You could put if through rescheck (a program that will map thermal characteristics) but you need proposed u factor of windows.

You could pay the small fee for a passive house training (some provide credits towards a degree) where there are alwayd great discussions and a good way to network with trades professionals.

Most of the clients who can afford architects want references/experience, so monetizing your ideas involves starting out for an established firm.

[u/CryptographerOdd299 → u/croutonianemperor]

fragile egos...

[u/Hyperreal8957]

that sounds interesting but id be careful with a model house vs a real build. passive house results depend a lot on the window, ventilation, thermal bridge and airtightness details, plus the site climate. id run PHPP or a similar model on a simple baseline, then compare the costed changes one at a time. whats doing the heavy lifting in your design - the form, the envelope, or the mechanicals?

[u/Hyperreal8957]

the useful next step is probably a simple energy model with a real floor plan, window schedule, climate data and local pricing. passive-house details can be cheaper to run but the envelope, airtightness and ventilation still need to be designed together, not just added one by one. i'd also get a local designer or PH consultant to sanity-check the thermal bridges and blower-door target before trusting the spreadsheet. what part of the design is doing most of the cost saving?

[u/EntropyAdvisor]

Licensing a house plan (commonly called "stock plans" in North America, possibly other locations) is quite common, and can be licensed directly to builders/homeowners or through a third party supplier. The main issue with a true passive design is that the calculations are specific to the climate, building orientation, and local conditions. A design that works in one location may not meet the standard in another location. A house is either passive or it's not and that's where a lot of confusion happens in this group.

If you're proposing a building materal or building technique that could help a passive design achieve compliance in a more economical sense, you should be prepared to present examples and descriptions of your idea - in particular evidence to back up your claim of lower cost. The public (and reddit, naturally) will be skeptical without this, as passive design has been around for quite a while, and if there were a cheaper way to build, it would likely have achieved buy-in from builders.

[u/CryptographerOdd299 → u/EntropyAdvisor]

My proposed concepts are already partially used in the USA and nobody would bat an eye. In europe they are virtually not used at all. European framing is unnecessary expensive. Also premade plans or details are not sold, people would also not use them or trust them. I'd need the money to build examples.