The first passive house (PH) was built in Germany in 1991. Since then several empirical design solutions have been developed, meeting the requirements of the PH standard proposed by the Passive House Institute (PHI) of Darmstadt, Germany. These design solutions have spread throughout central and western Europe and tend to be implemented in areas with a quite different climate than Germany's, such as southeastern Europe. This paper focuses on the question of whether the German design solutions would ensure the fulfillment of PH standard requirements in the latitudes of Romania. The paper compares general climate conditions for 22 towns in Germany and Romania. Further analysis is performed by estimating the energetic performance of a prototype passive building located in any of those 22 towns. The prototype passive building is AMVIC PH built in 2008 in Bragadiru (near Bucharest, Romania). It appears that the design solutions developed in Germany may be relaxed (for example, the thermal insulation may be reduced) when implemented for latitudes lower than 45 degrees N. DOI:10.1061/(ASCE)EY.1943-7897.0000066. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.