A Passive House as Proof of Concept: Wayne Turett’s Greenport Living Laboratory – GreenBuildingAdvisor

Wayne Turett, founder of The Turett Collaborative in New York City and a former United Nations sustainability speaker, has spent much of his career weaving environmental responsibility into his work. But when it came to his own house, he wanted to move beyond theory and see what was possible in practice.

So he designed and built his own Passive House as a full-scale experiment.

“I’ve described this house as a living laboratory,” says Turett, who also served as the construction manager for the project, with Vector East as the main subcontractor. “I wanted to see how effective it really was in terms of energy efficiency, and to monitor it every month to see, year after year, month after month, what the kilowatt usage actually looked like.”

The result is a two-story, 2,445-square-foot home in the historic coastal village of Greenport, located at the eastern tip of Long Island’s North Fork. Turett and his wife occupy the home part-time and are often joined by their two daughters, their husbands, and two young grandchildren.

Turett set out to test Passive House principles in Climate Zone 4A—high R-values, airtight construction, balanced ventilation, and all-electric systems. The house has since achieved a projected HERS Index of 32, low operating costs, and noticeable improvements in indoor air quality. Now Turett is adding integrated solar roof panels to push the home closer to net zero.

For Turett, this project was never just about meeting a standard or getting a certification. He wanted to see the results for himself.

Building in a Historic Coastal Context

Greenport’s climate brings cold winters, humid summers, salt in the air, and plenty of wind-driven rain. The village is also a designated historic district, where the local building tradition calls for a gable roof.

That requirement turned out to…