Passive
House: Comfort through Efficiency
The Passive House
is the world’s leading standard in energy efficient construction:
Energy saved on heating is 80% compared to conventional standards
of new buildings. The energy requirement for heating is lower
than 10 to 20 kWh/(m²a) (depending on climate), adding
up to a low cost of 10 to 25 € per month. Therefore high
energy prices are no longer a threat to Passive House occupants.
Exceptionally efficient components and a state of the art
ventilation system, achieve these huge savings without compromising
comfort, but rather increasing it.
The Passive House concept is a comprehensive approach to cost-efficient,
high quality, healthy and sustainable construction. The concept
is easy to understand:
- Contemporary
construction is quite airtight,
therefore the air replacement from infiltration is not sufficient.
Ventilating by opening windows is not a convincing strategy
either. Getting a sufficient volume of fresh air is not
just a question of comfort, but a requirement for healthy
living conditions. Therefore mechanical
ventilation is the key technology for all new construction
as well as refurbishment of existing buildings. Mechanical
ventilation will work in all cold and all hot climates since
in an airtight house, the heating and cooling energy required
will be significantly less.
- Even though
mechanical ventilation systems raise initial investment
costs, if designed efficiently they will reduce energy costs
significantly, eventually paying off the initial cost. Ventilation
units suitable for Passive Houses allow for an economic
operation.
- Now we explain
the central "trick" of the Passive House concept:
The fresh air needed is entering the room anyhow. If one
could use this air to cover the heating
load, without increasing the mass flow, without recirculated
air, without noise and without drafts - then the ventilation
will pay off a second time.
- This concept
of "fresh air heating" is only possible in a building
with superior thermal
insulation, just like a Passive House. For experts:
This is the defining requirement; the maximum heat load
should be lower than 10
W/m² , allowing the fresh air to carry the heat
load.
Passive Houses
require superior design and components with respect to:
To realise an optimal
interaction of all components, an energy
balance of the building has to be worked out. And step
by step any new design may be improved to meat Passive
House standards.
Thousands of Passive
House dwellings are already occupied. Examples
will be shown in workshops at the Passive
House Conference:
- Design, redesign,
create scopes of opportunity: architecture and the Passive
House
- Passive commercial
buildings
A tour of built
examples will take place place on April 13th, 2008.
Podcast on Passive Houses: The
Passive House.
Additional
information about the Passive House concept.
(updated 2007-05-19 W. Feist thanks
to Dylan Lamar for proof reading
© Passive House Institute;
unchanged copy is permitted, please give reference to this
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