DesignPH Masterclass
Start Date
The designPH Masterclass is a self-paced online course and starts the moment you enroll.
9+ hours of lectures and around 12h in total needed to complete the course.
Prerequisites
Highly recommended to have knowledge about the Passive House design principles and basic experience with PHPP.
No prior knowledge is needed with designPH or SketchUp.
You need to have the designPH plugin.
Credit Points:
This course grants 16 Continuing Education Points, which can be applied toward renewing your Passive House Designer / Consultant / Tradesperson certification.
What is designPH?
If you are looking for software that calculates with high accuracy the energy efficiency of buildings, the PHPP is the best choice. Unfortunately, the software needs to manually enter a large amount of information that can often be mistaken. And here comes the designPH plugin for SketchUp developed by the Passive House Institute, which not only saves you a lot of time for the input of the information and for searching and correcting the errors but also calculates precisely the shading of your building for you. The simple and graphically oriented nature of the plugin will allow you to create 3D models and analyze the energy performance of your projects just within a few hours. You can use the preliminary energy balance results to optimize the building design, the shape and size of windows, balconies, overhangs, and shading devices of your buildings. This facilitates a more effective iterative design process, which will allow you to get an immediate idea of the building’s energy performance and rule out poorly performing design options early in the design stage. Once an optimal design is achieved, the 3D model can then be exported to PHPP for detailed design, refinement, and Passive House certification.
designPH Course Content
You will learn to:
- Create a 3D model of a building in Sketchup
- Use SketchUp, optimize your workflow, and use shortcuts
- Determine key building characteristics, including building envelope areas, TFA, unheated volumes, and shading elements
- Be familiar with the designPH interface and work with all functionalities of the plugin
- Assign properties and components to the 3D model
- Calculate a simplified annual energy balance for the building
- Compare design options and iteratively refine the model to achieve the Passive House criteria
- Understand the proper organization of the designPH models to streamline the workflow and minimize the potential errors
- Export the 3D model from designPH and import it into PHPP
- Refine and finalize the imported model in PHPP and use it for certification
- Gain practical experience in completing a designPH model for a single-family house
Course Outcomes
- Master using designPH for buildings of any shape, size, and utilization, in any type of climate
- Knowledge of how to use designPH in the design process of Passive House buildings
- Understanding of how to assess the energy performance of design options in the early design stage.
- Techniques to streamline your workflow with designPH and SketchUp
- Hands-on experience in completing a full designPH model of a residential project
Meet your course instructors
Learn from industry experts
Anton Dobrevski
Co-Founder, Certified Passive House Consultant & Trainer, Leed Green Associate
Anton became one of the youngest Certified Passive House Consultants in the world at the age of 16. He is also an accredited Passive House Trainer by the PHI and a LEED Green Associate. Anton graduated with a Master’s degree in architecture at the Delft University of Technology. Currently, he is designing and consulting multiple Passive House projects all over the globe. Anton is a passionate advocate of the Passive House Standard and his aim is to make the Passive House Standard accessible to people all over the world. In his spare time, Anton enjoys music, karate, yoga, and traveling.
Svetlin Dobrevski
Co-Founder, Passive House Certifier, Certified Passive House Consultant
Svetlin is Passive House Trainer, Consultant, and Certifier globally accredited by the Passive House Institute. He designed, built, and now lives in the first Passive House Classic in Bulgaria. Svetlin has been delivering Passive House Designer courses for over 10 years and he trained 250+ people from over 20 countries. He has 25+ years of experience in the building sector and worked on numerous Passive House projects all over the world. He was also a keynote speaker at the International Passive House Conferences in 2017 and 2018. In his spare time, Svetlin enjoys hiking in nature, fencing, and archery.
Course Curriculum
- Welcome to the designPH Masterclass
- Tips to improve your course taking experience
- Download SketchUp
- Intro to Module 1
- Install designPH
- designPH activation and updates
- designPH user interface
- Intro to Module 2
- Setting up SketchUp
- Navigating in SketchUp
- Drawing tools and fast buttons
- Camera views, styles and sections
- Groups and Layers/Tags
- Components
- Materials
- Scenes
- Exporting and importing 3D models
- Intro to Module 3
- Download the sample project files
- Massing the opaque building envelope
- Massing the transparent building envelope
- Massing the TFA
- Massing the shading elements
- Intro to Module 4
- Climate Zone
- Assign properties to the opaque building envelope
- Assign properties to the transparent building envelope
- Assign Thermal bridges
- Define TFA
- Define Footprint
- Assign Ventilation system and IHG
- Geolocation
- Shading objects
- Designs of complex windows and facades
- Organizing the model
- Common mistakes
- Tips and Tricks
- designPH for the Southern hemisphere
- Intro to Module 5
- Analyzing the model with designPH
- Surface names in designPH
- Exporting the model and importing it to PHPP
- Making final PHPP adjustments
- Import a 2D model (from AutoCAD)
- Import a 3D model (from Revit)
- Sample designPH files
- designPH checklist
- Submit your sample project
- Schedule your 30-minute Q&A call with us!
- Course feedback
Get your designPH Masterclass certificate
Bonuses
- You will get access to designPH files that we used for certifications of Passive House projects.
- After completing the designPH online course, you will be able to schedule a free 30-minute Q&A session with Svetlin and Anton and ask them any questions that you have about designPH.
- After every lecture, you will be able to ask questions and add any comments on the topic of the lecture.
Get additional CP for the renewal of your CPHD/C certificate
16 Continuing Education Points
What our course participants say about the course:
designPH Masterclass
Master using the designPH plugin for SketchUp. A step-by-step online course to design Passive House and Low Energy buildings using designPH.
Included in the course:
- Complete course
- Access to designPH files of certified projects
- Ask questions and comment on lectures
- 1-on-1 Q&A session
- 16 CPs for certification renewal
- 12-month access
€1697 excl. tax
€249 excl. tax
Included in the course:
- Complete course
- Access to designPH files of certified projects
- Ask questions and comment on lectures
- 1-on-1 Q&A session
- 16 CPs for certification renewal
- 12-month access
£1447 excl. tax
£205 excl. tax
Included in the course:
- Complete course
- Access to designPH files of certified projects
- Ask questions and comment on lectures
- 1-on-1 Q&A session
- 16 CPs for certification renewal
- 12-month access
$2797 excl. tax
$405 excl. tax
Included in the course:
- Complete course
- Access to designPH files of certified projects
- Ask questions and comment on lectures
- 1-on-1 Q&A session
- 16 CPs for certification renewal
- 12-month access
$1847 excl. tax
$269 excl. tax
Frequently Asked Questions
If your questions aren’t covered below, you can send us a message.
No. However, if you don’t already own it, you’ll have the option to add the latest version of the designPH software to your purchase during checkout when registering for the course.
Additionally, there is a free trial version of designPH (with limited functionality) available, which you can use to complete most parts of the course.
This course is for ALL building professionals working on the design and construction of Passive House and Low Energy buildings and want to streamline their Passive House energy modeling. If you want to spend more time designing and less time modeling, if you want to be able to assess the energy performance of early design options without spending too much time and effort, and if you want to certify your Passive House projects, this course is the perfect fit for you.
For this course, you will need designPH v2.0 (or later; free demo version is available), SketchUp (desktop version; free trial version is available), and PHPP v9.6 (or later).
No! We have a whole dedicated module in the course in which we teach you how to use SketchUp even if you have 0 experience with the software.
Yes! The designPH Masterclass is part of the PHPP Expert course organized by the Passive House School.
Yes! The designPH Masterclass is recognized by PHI as further education training for Certified Passive House Designers/Consultants with 16 CPs under the ID: K242_2024_NL. If you require a confirmation of completion please email: team@passivehouseschool.com
The designPH Masterclass is a self-paced course and all lectures are pre-recorded. You can complete it in your own time and work through it as fast or slow as you wish.
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.
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 course.
If you live in a country where an invoice is required by law, the platform we use for our courses (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.