Passive House design for India

India doesn't need imported comfort. It needs engineered comfort.

A Passive House stays comfortable through a 42°C afternoon on a fraction of the energy a normal building needs — lower bills, cleaner air inside, and far less to fix over the years. Péclet designs them for India's climate, not Europe's.

OUTSIDE · 42°C
INSIDE · 24°C
TYPICAL BUILDING Pe ≈ 8.7
DRAG TO SEAL THE BUILDINGLEAKY

Fewer leaks, more control — that's the entire idea.

Passive House, in plain terms

Not a technology you add on. A different way to build.

A Passive House combines a continuous layer of insulation, a genuinely sealed envelope, good windows, and a small system that constantly brings in filtered fresh air while recovering the heat or coolness that would otherwise be wasted.

The result: a building that holds a comfortable temperature almost by itself, on a fraction of the energy a conventional building needs — proven with testing, not a guess on paper. No solar panels required, no exotic materials. Just the basics, done properly.

What changes for you

Lower electricity bills

A sealed, insulated envelope cuts cooling load dramatically, so your AC runs far less to do the same job.

Even, stable comfort

No hot upstairs bedrooms, no cold spots, no scrambling to adjust the thermostat through the day.

Cleaner air inside

Continuous filtered fresh air — a real difference in cities where outdoor air quality is poor.

Quieter indoors

The same sealed, heavy envelope that stops heat also blocks a surprising amount of outside noise.

Livable through power cuts

Because the building itself does most of the work, indoor temperature holds far longer without power or AC.

Fewer repairs over time

Better moisture control means less cracking, less mold, and less material damage down the line.

What changes for the environment

A much smaller carbon footprint

Dramatically lower energy use, year after year, for as long as the building stands.

Less strain on the grid

Matters most exactly when it matters most — peak summer afternoons, when the whole city's AC is running.

Less refrigerant in circulation

Smaller, less-used cooling systems mean less of a potent greenhouse gas at risk of leaking out.

Built to last

A durable envelope spreads its upfront environmental cost over a much longer working life.

How it compares

Green ratings score a lot of things. Passive House measures one thing, strictly.

Ratings like LEED, IGBC, and GRIHA are genuinely useful for site choices, materials, and water use, scored across many categories. Passive House asks a narrower question — will this specific building actually stay comfortable on very little energy — and answers it with testing, not points.

TYPICAL CONSTRUCTION
GREEN-RATED (LEED / IGBC / GRIHA)
PASSIVE HOUSE
Energy performance
Not measured
Estimated at the design stage
Modeled — and verified as built
Airtightness
Untested, often leaky
Rarely a baseline requirement
Blower-door tested, ≤0.6 ACH50
Indoor comfort
Entirely dependent on AC
Not part of most rating criteria
Engineered into the building itself
Indoor air quality
Unfiltered, through gaps and windows
Varies project to project
Continuous filtered fresh air
What's actually being rated
Points across site, water, materials, energy, and more
Real-world thermal performance, alone
Built for 40°C, not −10°C

The Passive House standard was written for Central European winters. India's problem runs the other direction.

WHERE THE STANDARD WAS WRITTEN

Cold, dry winters, heating-dominated. Moisture is trying to escape outward through the wall. The main problem is keeping heat in.

WHERE WE DESIGN

Hot, humid, and composite climates, cooling-dominated. Moisture is trying to get in, monsoon included. The main problem is keeping heat — and moisture — out.

70–90%
Typical target for lower cooling-energy demand vs. conventional construction
≤ 0.6
Air changes per hour @ 50 Pa — the Passive House airtightness benchmark
±1–2°C
Indoor swing designers target even through unconditioned periods
The name

In building physics, heat moves through a wall two ways — carried by air leaking through gaps, or spreading slowly and predictably through the material itself. The ratio between the two has a name: the Péclet number. A leaky building is ruled by the first, unpredictable kind. A Passive House is engineered so the second, predictable kind takes over — the slider in the diagram above is that shift, live. It's also where our name comes from.

What we do

Passive House Design

Homes and buildings designed from the first sketch for comfort and ultra-low energy use — not retrofitted after the fact.

Performance Modeling & Simulation

We model exactly how your building will perform — energy use, comfort, humidity — before a wall goes up, using real Indian climate data.

Climate-Adapted Envelope Detailing

Walls, roofs, and windows detailed for Indian heat and monsoon humidity, not translated from a European section.

Certification Support

Guidance for project teams pursuing formal Passive House certification, from early design through final testing.

Approach

Five stages. In order, every time.

01
Climate & Site Analysis
Actual site climate data, orientation, and shading — read before any design decision is made.
02
Energy Modeling
PHPP-based simulation sets the performance target before form and materials lock in.
03
Envelope & Systems Design
Insulation, airtightness strategy, glazing, and ventilation engineered together as one system.
04
Construction Detailing & Site QA
Junction details, blower-door testing, and site supervision so the built result matches the model.
05
Performance Verification
Post-occupancy checks against the original energy and comfort targets.
The Studio

Vivek Kher

Founder, Péclet

Vivek's background spans construction engineering and Passive House practice across the United States and India, including work on the design and construction team of a Certified Passive House project in New York.

Péclet exists to bring that discipline to Indian construction — where it is still rare, and where the climate case for it is arguably stronger than anywhere it has been built so far.

BE MS · USA CMIT · NY FE CPHD (in progress)
Start a project

Tell us about the site.

New construction, retrofit, or a project already underway that needs a building-physics second opinion — send the basics and we'll get back to you.

studio@péclet.com