Günter Pazen, Passive House window pioneer and owner of Enersign windows, spoke with Mary James about his commitment to building better windows and the development of his business.
What prompted you to start manufacturing energy-efficient windows?
I started in the window business about 40 years ago, but I started seriously thinking about making more efficient windows 20 years ago. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsacker, who founded the Wuppertal Institute for Energy and the Environment, was my mentor. He wrote the book, Factor Four, along with coauthors Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins. He gives me the input for efficiency thinking.
About 18 years ago, Pazen was contacted by a local utility that wanted to build a zero energy house, but couldn’t find high efficiency windows. At that time Pazen already had extensive experience in window manufacturing, but had never built a high efficiency window. He created a custom highly insulated triple-pane window. Shortly after, he was contacted by the architect of a proposed 46-rowhouse development that was designed to meet the Passive House (PH) standard.
It was the first big rowhouse development in Germany, and they wanted PH windows and couldn’t find one example, because it doesn’t exist. Then they found out that we could do it, because I had already made the window for the zero energy house. Over the next three years I helped to realize the first PH projects in Weisberg, in Hannover, and in Freiburg. These were all pilot projects to show that we can do it. We were the only manufacturer to produce such windows. It was a beautiful time. My motor was my thinking for better energy and better buildings.
But it was also a challenging time financially for Pazen and his family. Ten years ago he left the window manufacturing company where he had been working to found his own company that only makes PH windows, to as Pazen says, “go my own way with my feet.”
By this time you had already developed the reputation of being able to deliver the PH windows?
Yes, in Germany I was the first man who produced and developed the PH window. I was one of the first 10 guys to know what a PH is. I don’t have to ask, What is it, can I eat it? I know what a PH is.
So I worked and worked and realized that, along with architects and PH designers, we must think together not just about the windows, but about the walls, insulation, and heat recovery system. When we work together, we can optimize the house. This is not normal for a window builder who usually thinks only of windows. We think all over the house.
What led you to develop the Enersign windows, with their slimmer frames?
PH is a vision, a good vision. But not all of the houses are beautiful. Then I think, must it be so? No, we can build beautiful houses. One of the parts we must change is the window. The window is the eye of the house. But when you see it with very big frames, it’s not smiling. My idea was to create a Bauhaus-type window with the highest efficiency in the world. We manufactured highly insulated windows with slim frames and 10% to 12% more glass. Our window has a very good u-value and, because we have more glass, we have better g-value (higher solar heat gain). Enersign also has an exterior frame made from fiberglass, which is a very durable material and also weather proof—and then a wooden frame on the inside so you can get the natural feeling of the wood inside.
From the outside you see zero frame, only the wall and the glass. We get back the eye to the house. It’s smiling. It’s sexy. The architects like it. And they have good reason. Less is more!
You started off selling only in Germany, and then you expanded into other markets. How did you grow your business?
We sold first only in Germany, and then Luxembourg. We don’t find architects; they find us. Our first sale in Scandinavia was in 2007. Now we have a great business in Scandinavia. We are the brand leader for PH windows in Denmark. Before the climate conference in Copenhagen, we realized 64 student houses at the university in 2008. Then we realized 32 low-income housing in Aarhaus in 2009. Now we have clients also in Sweden and Norway.
Last year we started in Belgium. I thought they would not be interested in the types of windows we produce, but I was wrong. In Europe, all governments do their best, and we have a market. In the last 10 months of this year, we have helped to build more than 40 houses. It was a start up, and in one year we are the brand leader in Belgium.
Last year we delivered windows to the world exhibition in Shanghai, to a house with five floors. They needed very good windows. It was a big house without climate control, even though Shanghai is vey hot. It attracted a lot of people. We have clients in Japan and in Korea, a single house. They found us through the Passivhaus Institut (PHI)[in Germany].
When we go all over, though, we hunt too much rabbit. We have a saying, when you hunt 10 rabbits, you catch no rabbits. Not that we want to kill the rabbit. We want to get friendly with them.
Do you do much advertising?
No, because our houses are our advertising. The press comes and sees it and writes about it, and that is the best advertising.
Although you do market at the PHI conference, yes?
We need the conference, and the conference needs us. When we don’t exhibit at the conference, something is missing, so they are always encouraging us to participate.
Now you are expanding into the U.S., selling your products through Quantum Builders in Berkeley, California, yes?
Yes, we started with Quantum Builders two years ago, because Quantum Builders has the right thinking. We teach the teacher, then Quantum does the same for the architects. It goes step by step. It is hard work. The first sale was in California. We now have projects in Oregon, Washington, and a big project on Long Island, New York. Together, we can look for the next hunting.
How do you market PH windows in the U.S.?
In the U.S. you need much energy to say to an architect, no need for much air conditioning or climate control. As the people who represent this [PH window] product you need much stamina, because the clients want to be able to put the air conditioner or minisplit unit on. You might sell it to them, but you know it is the wrong solution. There’s not too many people who won’t just say, here it is I can sell it to you and would instead say, I have a better idea.
Any other challenges to building PHs in the U.S.?
A lot of materials must get better, because they have too much volatile organic compounds (VOCs). I looked in houses [here], and it fights with my nose. If you put all this toxic stuff in it, it is not a matter of breathing the house for a few months, it will stay for very long and you can get cancer. You must have a good overview of the materials. You must deliver a high efficiency house, but you must not forget the healthy part. This is especially important in a PH, because it is airtight.
Yes, many PHs are being constructed with so much foam.
I think it is a big joke when an architect says, I build a PH to save the oil reserves and they put over the house a lot of oil. It cannot be. They have not understood enough. They have understood only one thing, the high efficiency.
Has your vision for the company changed much over the last 10 years?
Twenty years ago Weizsacker gave me a great vision, a perfect brainwash. There was no market for my windows, but I knew we would need it in the future. All over Europe, all over the world, we must do many things to change the climate. We only have a chance when we build high efficiency houses.
We also see that old houses need good windows and insulation. We must renovate the old house for energy and for infrastructure [improvement], and when we do it together, then the cost is lower. But the knowledge you must have to do this is very great. In areas such as Boston, an old house in the summer needs ventilation or cooling and, in the winter, heating. In Germany you might improve the home’s efficiency by a factor of 10. In Boston, where you need a cooling system and a heating system, you can realize an efficiency improvement by a factor of 20.
Do you have windows that are optimized for both heating and cooling?
Our knowledge is very good for changing climate zones. In each climate zone, you must choose, as if from a menu, this part and that part and make a window that is right for that zone. The glass assembly has to change depending on the zone.
Has all the research [for improving window performance] been done?
No. In Germany, in 1900, we had a patent office in Munich, which they wanted to close, because all the things that could be invented have been done. All night long, in my dreams, I have new ideas.
