Building science benchmark

How well do you actually know building science?

Ten questions at Certified Passivhaus Designer level. About four minutes. No easy points. Score yourself instantly, then we send the full worked reasoning by email.

10 Questions
~4 Minutes
CPHD Level
Free No cost

Written by Mosart, a practising Passivhaus team. Criteria reflect the common Classic, cool-temperate cases; some thresholds vary by climate and certification class.

10
Fundamentals
Answer options
Select an answer
Your benchmark

The kind of thing the course makes obvious

That was one insight. There are nine more.

We will send the reasoning behind every question, with the consequence each one carries on a real project, plus a short reading list and a few words on the CPHD course. No spam.

The reasoning, and why each one matters

The answer is the easy part. The second paragraph is where the design judgement lives.

What the course actually gives you

A way of seeing buildings.

The ten facts are the easy part. What separates designers whose buildings actually perform is judgement: knowing which detail decides the outcome, where to spend and where to stop, why a model passes but a building fails. That is what the Certified Passivhaus Designer course builds.

Explore the CPHD course
Results sent

Your score and the full worked reasoning are on their way. Check your inbox in the next few minutes.

What the benchmark covers.

Topics
01
Heat loss and U-values
Calculation methods, correction factors, thermal bridges and their psi-values.
02
PHPP methodology
Monthly energy balance, treated floor area, climate data and how it all connects.
03
Airtightness
Measurement methods, units, typical targets and what the test actually measures.
04
Ventilation
MVHR efficiency, specific fan power, and why it matters for the energy balance.
05
Moisture and condensation
Interstitial condensation risk, vapour control and the Glaser method.
06
Primary energy and carbon
Primary energy factors, how Passivhaus accounts for renewables, and what the limits mean.
Why we built it

The gap between knowing and understanding.

Every year thousands of designers pass Passivhaus courses. Not all of them carry the understanding into the detail stage. This benchmark is a way to draw the line in private, before it matters on a project.

We wrote it at CPHD level because that is the standard that closes the performance gap. If you are studying for the PHI exam, it is a useful calibration. If you already hold the qualification, it will tell you where to sharpen.

01
Instant result
Your score appears as soon as you submit the final question. No waiting.
02
Full worked reasoning
We send every question with the calculation, the standard it references, and why the wrong answers are wrong.
03
No tricks, no guessing
Every question has a single correct answer grounded in building physics, not opinion.
04
Written by practitioners
The team who designed and certified over 4 million square feet of Passivhaus buildings wrote every question.