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. 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 15th, 2007.
Additional
information about the Passive House concept.
(updated 2007-09-23 thanks
to Dylan Lamar for proof reading
© Passive House Institute;
unchanged copy is permitted, please give reference to this site)
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