Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant online exam
Become a worldwide accredited Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant by the Passive House Institute!
Next Exam Date
Exam date 1: 02. Nov. 2023, 9:00 am CET
Trial Exam 1: 30. Oct. 2023, 9:00 am CET
Exam date 2: 02. Nov. 2023, 2:30 pm CET
Trial Exam 2: 30. Oct. 2023, 2:30 pm CET
Note: It is mandatory to participate in the trial exam to take part in the regular exam as well.
Prerequisite
Time
Regular exam time: 3 hours (in total around 4 hours)
Trial exam meeting: 1 to 1,5 hours long
Advantages of becoming a Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant
Every student who successfully passed the Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant exam will receive the title “Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant ” and their names will be entered in a database of Certified Passive House Designers for a period of 5 years from the date of certification. As a CPHD/C you will contribute to the environment by designing sustainable buildings, to your clients by designing more comfortable and cost-effective buildings and to yourself by broadening your career horizons.




Practical Information
The Passive House School fixes the examination dates and organizes the exam in cooperation with the Passive House Institute (PHI). The exam lasts 3 hours and is conducted fully online, using the online exam platform of the Passive House Institute. Around 2-3 days before the exam, an online test meeting will take place to make sure all exam participants have properly set up the software for the exam. The test meeting is around 1 to 1,5 hours long.
After checking the exam two times internally, we send the examination documents to the Passive House Institute. After a third marking, the PHI will issue the certificate and send it to successful participants in digital form via e-mail. The participants who successfully pass the exam will be also added to the worldwide database of Certified Passive House Designers / Consultants of the PHI.
The exam is based on the following learning targets and includes multiple choice questions, construction details drawings, calculations, as well as a Passive House design exercise. Increase your chance of success by taking the Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant online course. Everyone who finishes the whole course will be eligible for the certification guarantee.
Please note that a valid PHPP license is needed to register for the exam, as a PHPP is required to design Passive House buildings.
Permissible examination aids: Course documents and textbooks, scientific calculator, or other calculation aids.
The following are not permitted: programmable calculators, mobile phones, and all devices that allow communication with the internet or publishing of the examination questions afterward.
Software compatible with the PHI exam platform: Windows and Mac OS (Linux can’t be used for the exam). Moreover, it is highly recommended to have admin access to the device.
Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant online exam
- Exam Ticket
- PHI Accreditation fees
- Exam overview lecture
- Test meeting
€399 excl. tax

Frequently Asked Questions
If your questions aren’t covered below, you can contact us or chat with us.
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.
Even after completing the whole Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant online course, you still don’t pass the exam, the exam guarantee will cover the exam costs for your second exam attempt, i.e. we will cover the costs for the exam ticket for your second attempt.
To qualify for the certification guarantee, you have to complete the whole course and finish all exercises:
- Before the exam, you have to have watched and/or participated in all lectures. If you couldn’t take part in any of the live sessions, you can still qualify for the certification guarantee if you rewatch the recordings of the live session.
- You have to complete all exercises – this means you have to send all exercises to us to check them. Sometimes it happens that some of the exercises are incorrect or incomplete. In this case, we will ask you to remake these exercises and send them to us again. After submitting the revised exercises, you will be eligible for the certification guarantee.
DISCLAIMER: Any additional costs, apart from the costs for the exam ticket and the accreditation fees, will have to be covered by you.
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.
No, these are done on paper. Before the exam we will send you special exam papers which are provided by the PHI, on which you can do all the intermittent calculations and the design exercise. Only the final answers of the calculations are entered online in the platform.
After the regular exam time finishes (after 3,5 hours), you will have to scan all the papers and send them to us. When you register for the exam, you will get access to videos in which we explain the whole exam procedure in detail, including the scanning part.
Note: You don’t need to have a scanner. You can also use your smartphone.
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.
You can earn the international designation of “Certified Passive House Designer / Consultant” in one of two ways: by taking the Certified Passive House Designer Exam or by submitting project documentation.
If you want to submit project documentation, you have to document a certified Passive House, EnerPHit retrofit or PHI Low Energy Building where you exercised full responsibility for the building design and the project planning with the PHPP. Submission of a project documentation can be used to earn or renew the certificate for one person per building.
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.
The Certified Passive House Designer online course will fully prepare you to successfully pass the exam.
If you already have a lot of knowledge about the Passive House Standard and/or have worked on a Passive House project, we recommend you at least take part in the Passive House Online Exam Preparation module (Module 2). This module will help you prepare to successfully pass the exam.