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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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General: PHPP or Similar?

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    Is this easy to use? Or anything alternative?

    Looking for my own interest more than anything?

    Any tips or thoughts?
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      CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJun 4th 2026
     
    PHPP is just a big spreadsheet and is fairly easy to understand in a general kind of way. But IMHO it's quite complicated to understand and use it to produce a detailed model. So I paid an architect to use it on my behalf, and a certifier to audit the results. I restrict myself to tweaking various bits to see what happens. It is interesting to have a PHPP model of my house and it does seem to be pretty accurate. Some other people on here have used PHPP themselves, so I suspect opinions vary.

    The UK is developing a model called the Home Energy Model (HEM), which will run alongside SAP starting some time next year and eventually replace it. It's another thing that may be worth following.
    • CommentAuthorMike1
    • CommentTimeJun 5th 2026
     
    I've used the 2007 version and it's easy to use in concept, but there over 20 worksheets and lots of settings. You need a good knowledge of building construction & the principles involved, and to allow plenty of time to work through the notes to understand what you're doing to be able to complete it correctly. Unless you have an industry background, it would be much easier to find someone who knows the package.

    PHPP was the first product proven to be able to predict building performance of low-energy buildings across many climatic zones and it still doesn't have competition. The Home Energy Model might come close for less demanding buildings in the UK climate, but it's not likely to be accompanied by the up-skilling of the workforce necessary to build comparable low-energy buildings, so it may be hard to prove.
  4.  
    For interest, the Home Energy Model has been validated against PHPP and other high fidelity models, and also against real world buildings including passivhouses.

    The models all gave comparable accuracy of calculation.

    But they all have assumptions built into them about how occupants will behave and use the building. Different assumptions give different outputs, but different occupants behaved differently and messed up the predictions!

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-energy-model-replacement-for-the-standard-assessment-procedure-sap/the-home-energy-model-making-the-standard-assessment-procedure-fit-for-a-net-zero-accessible-webpage#chapter-6-validating-the-home-energy-model
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeJun 6th 2026
     
    You could try Hot 3000 a free Canadian tool for homes .a friend use its predecessor on tonyshouse - Hot 2000
    •  
      CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJun 6th 2026
     
    Posted By: tonyYou could try Hot 3000 a free Canadian tool for homes .a friend use its predecessor on tonyshouse - Hot 2000
    Do you have a link? I can only find Hot 2000
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeJun 6th 2026 edited
     
    Wasn't Hot 3000 a physics simulator of 3D-modelled whole-building steady-state (instantaneous) heat loss, not varying according to climate data? Whereas PHPP is just pragmatic - if this, then experience says that, no physics involved.
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeJun 6th 2026
     
    HOT3000 Release Candidate is a Shareware software in the category Miscellaneous developed by Natural Resources Canada - CETC-O.

    The latest version of HOT3000 Release Candidate is currently unknown. It was initially added to our database on 12/20/2008.

    HOT3000 Release Candidate runs on the following operating systems: Windows.

    HOT3000 Release Candidate has not been rated by our users yet.

    It looks to be available to me
    •  
      CommentAuthordjh
    • CommentTimeJun 7th 2026 edited
     
    Posted By: djhDo you have a link? I can only find Hot 2000
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeJun 7th 2026
     
    May be try HOT2000 it was ok
  11.  
    I use PHPP (although not as often as I'd like), and the thing to keep in mind is that its strength and accuracy comes from the quality of the data input, just as much as the algorithms under the hood.

    The process of gathering that input data - i.e. getting accurate thermal bridging analysis of each junction, lambda values for insulation etc. will definitely take time, but it is all a necessary part of the chain of evidence for any SAP or HEM assessment anyway. Even if you decide it's all too complicated, that folder of info will help whomever you appoint to do the work.

    If you can get access to the book 'PHPP Illustrated' through a library or bookshop, it will take you through each of spreadsheets step by step. I don't think there's an evidence 'tick list' exactly, but certainly reading through each chapter will show you the scope of what's involved.

    The other 'shortcut' is the 3D plugin designPH which circumvents much of the data entry by linking into SketchUp software. If you're handy with 3D software it's all fairly intuitive.

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