Passive House
Passive House is an international high-performance building standard designed to drastically reduce heating and cooling energy consumption.
Achieving Passive House Standards:
Passive House Design and Construction adhere to key principles:
- Insulation: Ensure continuous high-level insulation across the building envelope.
- Thermal Bridge Free Construction: Carefully plan junctions and connections to prevent heat and cold transfer.
- Glazing: Use high-performance insulated glazing units with airtight seals and proper orientation and shading to optimize solar gain.
- Airtightness: Maintain effective airtightness to minimize heat loss and drafts.
- Heat Recovery Ventilation: Employ energy-efficient fan-based heat exchanger ventilation systems for fresh, filtered healthy indoor air and minimal energy waste.
Certified Passive House Criteria:
- To achieve Passive House certification, a building must meet specific criteria:
- Space Heating: Keep heating and cooling energy consumption below 15 kWh per squaremeter annually.
- Peak Heating Loads: Limit peak heating loads to under 10 W per square meter.
- Cooling and Dehumidification: Ensure cooling and dehumidification energy use is less than 15 kWh per square meter annually.
- Airtightness: Conduct tests to show less than 0.64 air changes per hour at 50 pascals of pressure.
- Primary Energy: Total energy consumption for heating, cooling, hot water, and appliances must meet specified limits based on the building’s size.
Passive House Categories:
Classic: Classic Passive House projects are the easiest to achieve once airtightness, total energy use, and heating and cooling demands are met.
Plus: Passive House Plus projects are essentially energy neutral, minimizing consumption and generating as much renewable energy annually as the building uses. This calculation considers losses through storage, generation, and transmission of energy.
Premium: Premium projects surpass Plus and aim to further reduce consumption and generate enough renewable energy annually to balance the building and occupants’ needs.
Low Energy Buildings: This is a standard for energy efficiency and airtightness, and all our projects should naturally achieve this standard.
Enerphit: Enerphit is a standard for retrofitting existing buildings and is not typically relevant to our projects.
Health: Fresh, clean, filtered air is provided to all rooms year-round, minimizing allergens, dust, and mould, promoting health and well-being.
Comfort: Consistent comfortable temperatures are maintained in each room throughout the year, eliminating hot or cold spots and creating a relaxed, pleasant ambiance.
Resilience: Passive Houses are well-built and stable, suitable for off-grid solutions. They retain comfortable temperatures longer during extreme conditions or power outages.
Affordability: Running costs can be up to 90% lower than conventional buildings, essential in times of rising energy and financing expenses.
Simplicity: Careful design and quality construction ensure that Passive Houses stay cool in summer and warm in winter with minimal operation or control systems. Orientation, insulation, airtightness, glazing, and shading are optimized for efficiency.
Peace and Quiet: Exceptional insulation, airtightness, and quality glazing minimize external noise, creating a calm, peaceful environment.
Quality: Passive House projects demand detailed planning and lend themselves to prefabrication and simplicity, resulting in higher construction quality and durability compared to conventional buildings.
Value: Investing in a Passive House is an investment in quality, with growing market awareness leading to more financing options and potential long-term property value increases due to lower running costs.
