p>Wood is somewhere in the range of R1 per inch, so a log house wouldn’t be anywhere close to Passive house in terms of either airtightness or R value. We would be happy to help but as is there are too many questions in here and it would be difficult to really iron out any of your individual questions without getting muddled,  but I will give you some bullet point answers to start – </p> <p>More than logs ‘breathing’ is that they typically leak air unless some sort of air barrier solution has been figured. </p> <p>I would add insulation, I would not build an R11 house myself. </p> <p>I agree that a Zehnder is sort of pointless, that is a top of the line ventilation system for helping achieve performance levels that would be difficult to achieve with a log house. The added money would be better spent elsewhere I think. </p> <p>Minisplit heat pumps are a smart idea for efficient heating and cooling.  </p> <p>I don’t know about thermobuilt insulation, but I would say a metal roof is always a great idea as they last much longer than shingles. </p> <p>Sorry we can’t help more, for the moment I suggest you dig through our <a href="https://www.ecohome.net/guides/" target="_blank">building guide</a> as a lot of your questions on best R values, air tightness, Ventilation equipment, roofing and heat pumps is all in there. You can search either from the category menu or in the search bar. From there if you have questions we can for sure help, just try to break them up so they are easier to address. Best of luck!</p> <p> </p