Passive House Tracker

Overview

Track a Passive House project against the published certification thresholds for either PHIUS+ 2021 (PHIUS, North American climate-specific) or PHI (Passive House Institute, fixed metric criteria — Classic / Plus / Premium). The user provides modeled values from WUFI Passive (PHIUS workflow) or PHPP (PHI workflow); the skill compares against published targets and reports pass/fail per metric. Output is a CSV (one row per metric) plus a markdown summary in docs/passive-house/. This replaces the manual cross-check pass at every PH project's modeling milestones (early SD, DD pre-cert, CD final).

This skill does not decide whether the project will certify — that is a strategy + verifier call. The skill organizes the structure, performs the compare, cites target values verbatim from references/, and flags any failing metric with the published gap.

When to use

Trigger on:

• "Make a PHIUS+ scorecard from my WUFI run."
• "Compare these PHPP results to PHI Classic."
• "Track our Passive House project — DD modeling milestone."
• Pasted WUFI Passive or PHPP output ("annual heating demand 4.2 kBtu/sf·yr, source energy 36 kBtu/sf·yr, ACH50 0.42 …").

Do NOT trigger on:

• "Generate the PHIUS+ targets for my project ZIP" — out of scope; user must fetch from PHIUS portal.
• "Run the energy model" — out of scope; skill is post-modeling check.
• LEED / WELL / LBC / EnerPHit scoring — separate trackers.
• ASHRAE 90.1 / IECC envelope checks — use climate-zone-mapper.

Workflow

Step 1 — Bootstrap if needed

Check whether docs/passive-house/index.md exists. If not, run:

python scripts/init_workspace.py

The script creates docs/passive-house/ and an empty tracker log. No external Python dependencies.

Step 2 — Confirm certification path

State explicitly to the user:

"This skill compares modeled results to published Passive House targets. Choose your certification path: PHIUS+ 2021 (PHIUS, climate-specific targets — you must supply targets from your PHIUS Source Zero export); or PHI Classic / Plus / Premium (Passive House Institute, fixed metric criteria — bundled). EnerPHit (PHI retrofit) is out of scope. Continue?"

Do not proceed silently. The certification path determines which references are used.

Step 3 — Gather project context

Read docs/project.md if present. Otherwise ask the user for:

• project_name
• project_slug
• cert_path — phius_2021 or phi_classic or phi_plus or phi_premium
• phase — early_sd / dd_pre_cert / cd_final / post_occupancy
• floor_area_sf — conditioned floor area (interior conditioned area, ICFA for PHIUS)
• For PHIUS+ 2021 only: a path to the user's PHIUS Source Zero target export (CSV or pasted values for the metrics: annual heating, annual cooling+dehum, source energy, peak heating, peak cooling).

Step 4 — Initialize a fresh scorecard, or update an existing one

If a scorecard CSV exists at docs/passive-house/<project-slug>-ph-scorecard.csv, load it. Otherwise initialize from assets/passive-house-scorecard-template.csv, which is pre-seeded with the metric rows for the chosen cert_path:

• For PHIUS+ 2021: metrics = annual heating demand, annual cooling+dehum demand, source energy, peak heating load, peak cooling load, air leakage, limited overheating frequency. Target column is empty — user fills from PHIUS portal export.
• For PHI Classic / Plus / Premium: metrics + target values are pre-seeded from references/phi_classic_criteria.md. User only fills Actual.

Step 5 — Capture modeled values

Walk the metric list with the user. For each metric, the user provides:

• Target (PHIUS+ only — from PHIUS Source Zero portal export)
• Actual — from WUFI Passive or PHPP modeling
• Source — file path or screenshot reference of the modeling output
• ConfidenceFlag — high (final certified-modeler run), medium (mid-design check), low (rough early-SD estimate)

For metrics not applicable to the project (e.g. cooling+dehum in extreme cold climate), mark N/A.

Step 6 — Compute pass/fail

Run:

python scripts/compute_score.py \
  --scorecard docs/passive-house/<project-slug>-ph-scorecard.csv \
  --cert-path <phius_2021|phi_classic|phi_plus|phi_premium> \
  --out docs/passive-house/.cache/<project-slug>-score.json

The script computes:

• Per-metric Status = pass / fail / pending / N/A (pass = Actual ≤ Target for lower_is_better metrics).
• Per-metric Gap = Actual - Target (positive = over-target, negative = under-target / passing).
• Overall certification compatibility — all_pass / failures: [...] / pending_required: [...].

The script reads target methodology / fixed values from references/ — never hard-coded.

Step 7 — Write the markdown summary

Write docs/passive-house/<project-slug>-ph-summary.md:

• Header: project + cert path + phase + ICFA + last-updated date.
• Per-metric pass/fail table with target, actual, gap, status, source, confidence.
• Failures list (top decisions for the design team).
• Pending-metric list (to capture before next milestone).
• Citation footer: PHIUS+ 2021 / PHI source, reference file paths, last-verified date.

Step 8 — Update the project Passive House index

Run:

python scripts/append_to_index.py \
  --date 2026-05-09 \
  --project "<project-slug>" \
  --cert-path "<cert-path>" \
  --phase "<phase>" \
  --pass-count <N> \
  --fail-count <N> \
  --pending-count <N> \
  --csv "<project-slug>-ph-scorecard.csv" \
  --summary "<project-slug>-ph-summary.md"

Appends a row to docs/passive-house/index.md. Do NOT edit index.md with Edit.

Step 9 — Report

Tell the user:

• Path to scorecard CSV + summary.
• Pass / fail / pending counts.
• Failure list with computed gap (e.g. "Annual heating demand: 5.2 kBtu/sf·yr (target 4.5; over by 0.7)").
• Pending list — metrics user has not yet entered.
• Reminder: this is a structural compare against published targets — final certification depends on PHIUS / PHI verifier review.

Rules

• For PHIUS+ 2021, the Target column must be populated from the user's PHIUS Source Zero portal export. The skill does NOT generate climate-specific targets and does NOT trust training data for them. If the user lacks targets, the skill halts and tells them to fetch from phius.org.
• For PHI Classic / Plus / Premium, target values are quoted verbatim from references/phi_classic_criteria.md. No modification by Claude.
• Actual cells must come from a stated modeling tool (WUFI Passive or PHPP). The Source cell records the model file or screenshot reference — never blank.
• Pass/fail evaluation is computed by compute_score.py, never by Claude inline.
• All outputs live in docs/passive-house/ of the user's project.
• Standard version (PHIUS+ 2021 or PHI 2025-edition) and last-verified date are reported in every summary.

Anti-patterns

• Inventing climate-specific PHIUS+ 2021 target values from training data. PHIUS targets are per-ZIP; only the user's portal export is authoritative.
• Reproducing PHI fixed values from memory rather than references/phi_classic_criteria.md. References are the single source.
• Computing pass/fail by hand (Claude doing arithmetic). The script runs the compare.
• Treating PHIUS 2024 / EnerPHit / pre-2021 PHIUS as scoreable here.
• Mixing units. Imperial-first (kBtu/sf·yr, CFM50/sf, °F); metric in parens for PHI source values.
• Editing docs/passive-house/index.md directly with Edit. Use append_to_index.py.

Resources

• scripts/init_workspace.py — bootstrap docs/passive-house/
• scripts/compute_score.py — compare actuals to targets, emit pass/fail JSON
• scripts/append_to_index.py — append a row to docs/passive-house/index.md
• references/_provenance.md — PHIUS + PHI source pointers, last-verified
• references/phius_2021_targets.md — PHIUS+ 2021 methodology + sample climate-specific targets (illustrative only — user must fetch project targets from PHIUS portal)
• references/phi_classic_criteria.md — PHI Classic / Plus / Premium fixed criteria with imperial conversions
• assets/passive-house-scorecard-template.csv — pre-seeded metric rows
• assets/passive-house-index-template.md — header table for docs/passive-house/index.md