What's New in Phius Certification Guidebook v26.1.2

The Phius Certification Guidebook is a foundational document for the passive building community, and the one-stop-shop for all things related to the Phius project certification program. Each iteration of the Phius Certification Standard has included significant improvements, with the Phius Certification Guidebook receiving updates and refinements along the way.

The freshly released Phius 2024 Certification Guidebook (v26.1.2) is not a standard update, but rather a dedicated effort by Phius staff to clarify existing certification requirements and provide guidance to help streamline the certification process. A big shout-out to Haley Harlow, Rodrigo Barrios, Zoe Rader, Alyssa Fink, Dan Gonzalez and Andres Pinzon who have spent the past several months preparing this updated version.

This blog provides a high-level summary of what’s new and different in the latest version of the 2024 Certification Guidebook.

Key Sections to Review

Even though there are no major changes to certification requirements with this release, the following sections include substantial enough additions, reorganizations, or updates that we recommend at least skimming them to familiarize yourself with where key content is now located for your future reference.

• 1.4.4 Phius Energy Modeling Protocol for WUFI Passive
  • General guidance, process tips, and examples were added or updated across many sections (see the record of updates for a section-by-section summary of key updates).
  • Modeling paths for residential, non-residential, and unfinished projects are more clearly distinguished.
  • The number and order of several sections was adjusted. The updated table of contents for the WUFI Passive modeling protocol section should ease navigation.
• 1.4.6 Phius Energy Modeling Protocol for METr
  • New section added to provide guidance on using the cloud-based energy modeling platform.
  • To provide additional guidance for project teams making the transition from WUFI Passive to METr, Phius offered a pre-conference workshop at PhiusCon this year, and registration is currently open for a more extensive METr Single-Family training in early November. There is also a special 15% voucher for METr licenses available through Nov. 4 by using the code: phiuscon2026.
• 3.0 REVIVE 2024 Pilot
  • The pilot program is not accepting new projects at this time. Section 3 outlines the current available certification pathway for new retrofit projects, and the REVIVE 2024 Pilot Standard information has been moved to Appendix R.

Language Updates

There are a few language changes that have been implemented throughout the Certification Guidebook, and are helpful to keep in mind.

• Certification Milestones
  • After the design feedback process is complete, a project is awarded Design Certification. After the final review process is complete, a project is awarded Certification. Previously, the latter milestone was referred to as Final Certification.
• Co-Requisite Programs
  • DOE Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) has been renamed DOE Efficient New Homes (ENH).
• Misc.
  • Minor language changes for consistency and clarity were made throughout the document.

Formatting Changes

The overall organizational structure of the 2024 Certification Guidebook remains the same in this latest version.

A few formatting changes were made to improve document readability, including:

• Improved text style hierarchy
• Special text style for software terms (e.g., User defined)
• Standard formatting for nested tabs in WUFI Passive/METr (e.g., PH Case > General Tab)

Section-by-Section Record of Updates

This document provides a summary of specific updates made to individual sections of the Certification Guidebook, beyond the general updates listed above. Rather than providing an exhaustive list, this document is intended to help project teams who are already familiar with the Certification Guidebook identify which sections of Guidebook v26.1.2 would be especially beneficial to re-review.

We hope you will find the updates we made in this latest version of the 2024 Certification Guidebook useful!