Passive House Glass
A Passive House gives up very little heat, so the glass in its windows and doors carries more weight than it does in almost any other building type. Every pane sits in the thinnest part of the envelope, and every glass edge is a path where warmth can escape or cold can settle against an interior surface. At PFG Glass, we manufacture the insulating glass units that window and door makers build into high-performance frames.
What Passive House Asks of Glass
The Passive House standard targets an annual space-heating demand of no more than 15 kWh/m² or a peak heating load of 10 W/m², with airtightness verified on site at 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 Pa. Windows decide whether a project reaches those numbers, so every unit we make becomes part of that equation. Glazed openings can account for up to 35% of a house’s heat loss, which is why the Passive House Institute lists highly efficient windows among its core principles.
Triple-pane insulating glass is the typical answer. Low-emissivity coatings and gas-filled cavities cut heat flow across the face of the glass, while a warm-edge spacer deals with the perimeter, which is usually the weak point of conventional units. We build our Passive House units around that logic.
Glass Makeup Built for Passive House Performance
Over the years, we have gained extensive experience supplying glass for Passive House projects. We pair that glass with a warm-edge spacer system that reduces heat flow at the edge of the unit. A conductive spacer creates a cold band around the glass that invites condensation and drags down whole-window performance, and the Passive House Institute accounts for that band directly through its glass-edge thermal bridge values.
We assemble triple-pane units with low-E coatings chosen for each opening’s orientation, and every unit leaves our facility with its makeup documented: pane thicknesses, coating positions, spacer type, and gas fill. That record keeps the window manufacturer and your energy modeller working from the same glazing data.
Solar Gain: Winter Warmth Without Summer Overheating
Passive House design counts on south-facing glass to collect winter sun, but the same glass can overheat a room in July. The balance depends on window area, orientation, solar heat gain coefficient, and exterior shading, and BC Housing identifies each of those as a variable to manage.
Reading the Ratings Correctly
Several different U-values circulate on a Passive House project, and we see them mixed up more often than you might expect. Centre-of-glass U-value describes the glazing alone. Whole-window U-value adds the frame and the glass edge, and the installed value adds the junction where the window meets the wall. The Passive House Institute certifies complete window components, so a certificate applies to a specific frame, glazing, size, and climate zone rather than to glass by itself.
For a vertical window, the Passive House Institute’s component threshold is 0.60 W/(m²K) in the cold climate zone and 0.80 W/(m²K) in the cool-temperate zone. British Columbia’s Energy Efficiency Standards Regulation caps covered residential windows and sliding glass doors at 1.61 W/(m²K), and ENERGY STAR Canada’s window criterion is a U-factor of 1.22 W/(m²K) or lower. Passive House sits well below both, which is why we treat glass makeup as a design decision.
Within that chain, we manufacture the insulating glass units and provide the glazing details that window manufacturers and energy modellers rely on in the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP): glass makeup, centre-of-glass U-value, solar gain, and spacer type. When a window carries a Passive House certificate, we want the glass inside it to match the certified configuration exactly.
Certified to Standards That Matter
Our IGCC certification means an independent body tests our units through periodic accelerated laboratory testing and inspects our facility without notice. On a Passive House project, where a failed seal means fogging and a difficult replacement, that outside verification counts. We also hold SGCC certification for our safety glazing and belong to the Fenestration Association of BC. Our safety program has earned recognition from the Manufacturing Safety Alliance of BC through our OSSE certificate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is your glass Passive House certified?
Not on its own. A certificate belongs to the finished window or door because the whole assembly is what gets assessed. We make the sealed units that go into those frames, and our IGCC certification backs their quality. To confirm that our glass matches the makeup on the certificate, we work directly with your window manufacturer.
Does a Passive House project always need triple glazing?
Triple glazing is the most common choice. The Passive House Institute’s guidance for the cool-temperate zone points to triple glazing, and its cold-climate guidance points to high-end triple or even quadruple units. The right answer depends on your climate zone, window size, frame, and energy model, and we can review the options with your design team.
What is the difference between centre-of-glass and whole-window U-value?
A centre-of-glass number will always look better than a whole-window number because the frame and the glass edge conduct more heat than the glass itself. Ask which assembly a published value describes before you compare it with another product, and convert imperial U-factors to metric first. The glazing values we provide describe the glass alone, so use them alongside your window manufacturer’s whole-window data.
What information do you need to provide a quote?
Dimensions, glass makeup, coating selection by orientation, spacer type, gas fill, and any safety or acoustic requirements let us quote accurately.
PFG GLASS PROJECTS
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