You don't need to love maths or spreadsheets to benefit from this course. Many designers prefer focusing on aesthetics, creativity, and client experience, and that's exactly how it should be. Passivhaus is truly a team sport. Successful projects blend designers who excel at beauty and functionality with teammates who specialise in calculations and detailed PHPP modelling.

But even aesthetic-driven designers need to understand the core Passivhaus principles and know what matters most. If a design overlooks key principles, the project can quickly become expensive and unaffordable for the client, no matter how skilled the number crunchers are.

Fortunately, Australia already has a strong network of skilled technical experts to handle the complex spreadsheets. By mastering the principles, you can confidently brief and collaborate with these specialists, ensuring your beautiful designs also perform brilliantly. Ultimately, that leads to better clients, stronger briefs, and premium projects. And if you ever choose to dive deeper into the numbers yourself, we're here to support you every step of the way.

You don't need advanced maths or software skills to succeed with Passivhaus or PHPP. The maths involved in PHPP is straightforward arithmetic, and the software uses simple spreadsheets specifically designed for practical building projects. There's no complicated engineering maths or coding required.

Our course provides step-by-step guidance, clear tutorials, ready-to-use templates, and a 24/7 AI tutor to support you at every stage. Even if numbers aren't your strongest area, you'll quickly build confidence. Additionally, Passivhaus projects thrive on collaboration, so there's always technical support available through Australia's strong network of PHPP specialists.

PHPP is more detailed and precise than NatHERS, but not necessarily more complicated. NatHERS is simplified software designed mainly for regulatory compliance and quick ratings. PHPP, on the other hand, is a robust design tool focused on real-world accuracy, typically within 5% of actual building performance.

While PHPP has more detailed inputs, our course simplifies the learning curve through practical examples, ready-to-use templates, and clear, step-by-step tutorials. Rather than adding complexity, PHPP gives you greater confidence in your designs, ensuring what you plan is precisely what gets built. This accuracy means fewer surprises on site, fewer issues with compliance, and happier clients overall.

Yes, absolutely. This course clearly introduces you to PHPP software and ensures you're comfortable with the basics, even if you've never used energy-modelling tools before. You'll learn step-by-step with practical examples, clear guidance, and easy-to-follow lessons.

However, to become fully confident and proficient in real-world projects, we strongly recommend our follow-up advanced courses. These provide comprehensive guidance through complete project processes, clearly highlight common pitfalls, and teach you how to avoid costly mistakes.

It's fair to be skeptical. There's a common saying in building science: 'all models are wrong, but some are useful.' PHPP is unique because it was created from real-world data first, rather than theoretical calculations.

Real-world evidence confirms this. In the well-known CEPHEUS project, researchers monitored 221 Passivhaus homes across five countries. They found predicted and actual heating energy consumption matched almost exactly. While individual homes can vary slightly due to different lifestyles, across many buildings PHPP predictions typically fall within just 1 to 2% of actual metered data.

PHPP often proves more reliable than complicated 3D simulations because:

It requires users to carefully consider important details that other software might miss, such as thermal bridges and precise window-frame performance.

Its straightforward spreadsheet format helps prevent common user errors, unlike complex tools with thousands of confusing settings.

PHPP has also been extensively tested and meets rigorous international accuracy standards, including the ASHRAE 140 standard for building-energy analysis software.

Ultimately, PHPP provides a reliable picture of your project's real-world performance. This prevents overly optimistic predictions and helps ensure your clients won't face unexpected utility costs.