Certified Passive House Designer exam

Anybody can register for the exam. While it is not mandatory to have attended the Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant course, it is strongly recommended to increase your chance of success. Furthermore, everyone who completes the CPHD/C course will be eligible for the certification guarantee.

Keep in mind, that in order to take part in the exam, you should have a personal PHPP, as required by the PHI.

Both titles are equal in terms of qualification with ref­er­en­ce to the Passive House relevant knowledge. The requirements for attaining this certificate and for renewal are also the same. The only difference between Certified Passive House Designers and Consultants depends on your background, as far as Designers come from highly relevant fields. Consultants, on the other hand, can come from any background. Normally, Passive House Designers work in plan­ning of­fices on the con­crete im­ple­ment­a­tion of the Pass­ive House Stand­ard, while Pass­ive House Con­sult­ants usu­ally con­trib­ute to its dis­sem­in­a­tion through their work as re­search­ers or speak­ers, or as de­cision makers in gov­ern­ment au­thor­it­ies.

A clear classification is not always easy due to the diverse educational qualifications, professions and the legal provisions relating to buildings worldwide. For this reason, the Passive House Institute has specified two possibilities for classification as a “Certified Passive House Designer”:

• Providing proof of an educational qualification which enables you to plan buildings or technical building systems independently. This educational qualification should have reached a certain level (e.g. diploma or bachelor’s degree) and have been attained in a specialized subject that primarily involves the planning of buildings or building services systems.
• Providing proof of membership in an institution, whose members are entitled to provide planning services that are subject to approval by a building authority (e.g. Chamber of Architects).

You qualify for the Designer title if you have the following educational qualification:

• Architect or interior designer
• Civil or timber construction engineer
• Building physicist
• Building and energy technology engineer
• Building contractor
• Master carpenter
• Certified technician for structural engineering, building construction, heating plumbing and ventilation technology or supply technology

If you have the following educational qualification, you qualify for the Consultant title:

• Degree in (analytical) chemistry, electrical engineering, or manufacturing engineering
• Engineering degree in environmental technology and resource management
• Construction industry environmental safety technician
• Environmental engineer
• Gas, plumbing, and ventilation systems technician
• Woodwork technician
• Certified technician for electronics
• Energy consultant
• Architectural draftsman
• Geometrician
• Woodwork technician for window installation
• Managing director
• Property sales manager/estate agent
• Economist

Note: You just have to provide a copy of the proof to your course/ex­am­in­a­tion host or as­sess­ing body. The at­tained Con­sult­ant title can be changed into the De­sign­er title if such proof is only ob­tained and sub­mit­ted later on (e.g. tak­ing an ex­am­in­a­tion dur­ing train­ing). If no proof is sub­mit­ted, the Con­sult­ant title will be gran­ted upon suc­cess­ful qual­i­fic­a­tion.

The Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant certificate is valid for 5 years. After that the certificate can be renewed in two ways:

• By submitting project documentation, it is possible to renew a certificate at any time, even if your certificate has already expired some time ago.
• You can also renew your certificate through credit points for continuing education by attending events, conferences, and additional courses. Here you can check out our courses for which you can get additional credit points to renew your certificate. 

Yes. You are allowed to use papers to write down the intermediate calculation steps, however, only the final answers of the calculations are entered online in the platform. You will be assessed only based on the final answers and therefore the papers don’t have to be submitted.

You can bring any printed course material and notes to the exam. Digital materials are not allowed. 

At the Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant online course, we will give you additional resources, such as summaries of all formulas that are covered in the course and summaries of the Passive House requirements which you can also use at the exam.

We also advise you to bring markers or colored pencils for the design exercise, as well as a (scientific) calculator with spare batteries. If you don’t have one, we would recommend you get the Casio fx-991 ES PLUS C.

After successfully passing the exam, you will get the Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant certificate issued by the Passive House Institute (PHI) in Germany.

Yes, the exam is officially accredited by the Passive House Institute (PHI).

Also, the Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant title that you will acquire after passing the exam, is accredited and valid worldwide.

Students and iPHA members get a 10% discount.

If you are an iPHA Member, please send an email to team@passivehouseschool.com with a link to your iPHA membership to provide you with a discount code.

If you are a student, please send your proof of enrollment to team@passivehouseschool.com from your student email address.

At the Passive House School we schedule 3-4 exams per year. If for any reason you can’t take part in the exam you registered for, you will be able to take part in a later exam without any additional costs.

You will receive a receipt for your purchase which is tax compliant and can be used for claiming business expenses. For this, you have to enter your business details and VAT number (if applicable) on the checkout and you will receive your receipt via email after enrolling in the exam.

If you live in a country where an invoice is required by law, the platform we use for our checkout process (Teachable) will issue an invoice in PDF format for your purchase. If an invoice is not required by law, you will receive a receipt for your purchase.

IMPORTANT: To get a company receipt/invoice, you have to add your company name and tax number and click the apply button. 
If you provide a valid VAT number, tax will be automatically deducted at checkout. 

The Certified Passive House Designer online course will fully prepare you to successfully pass the exam.

The Certified Passive House Designer All-in Package includes Module 2 – Online Exam Preparation, which guides you through the exam format, shares practical tips and strategies for approaching the exam, and provides extensive additional practice questions.

We are confident in the effectiveness of our course structure. That’s why the All-in Package comes with a Certification Guarantee, giving you extra peace of mind as you prepare.