Passivhaus
Passivhaus or 'Passive House' is an energy performance standard for dwellings, commercial, industrial and public buildings that can be adopted throughout the world.
It was developed in Germany in the early 1990s by Professors Bo Adamson and Wolfgang Feist. The first Passivhaus dwellings were constructed in Darmstadt in Germany in 1991. It is intended primarily for new buildings, although it can be applied to refurbishment projects, but this can be expensive.
Passivhaus suggest that, 'A Passivhaus is a building, for which thermal comfort can be achieved solely by post-heating or post-cooling of the fresh air mass, which is required to achieve sufficient indoor air quality conditions – without the need for additional recirculation of air.’ This means that a traditional heating or cooling system is no longer essential.
The Passivhaus standard can be achieved by measures including:
- Shading.
- Pre-cooling of the supply air.
- Night purging.
- Natural ventilation.
- Air-tightness.
- Mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR).
- Insulation.
- Avoidance of thermal bridges.
- Passive solar gains.
- Exploitation of internal heat sources.
Whilst Passivhaus adopts the principles of passive design, it differs in its imposition of an overall limit on primary energy consumption. This limit includes; domestic hot water, lighting, projected appliance consumption, space heating, fans and pumps.
The primary energy demand target must be met in all cases, and either the specific heating demand target or the specific heating load target must be also met. In addition, there are limiting values for the performance of the building fabric, doors and glazing, ventilation systems, air tightness levels and thermal bridging. See Passivhaus Outline specification for details.
The energy balance of the proposed building must be verified using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP).
Certification is available in the UK from a number of organisations approved to assess and issue the Passivhaus Certificate, the EnerPHit certificate (for retrofit projects) and PHI Low Energy Building Certificate. See The Passivhaus Institute.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Active House.
- Aktivplus.
- An Introduction to Passive House - review.
- Code for sustainable homes
- BREEAM.
- Fabric first.
- Flue insulation and air tightness requirements.
- Green deal.
- Home Quality Mark.
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
- NHBC technical standards.
- Passive design.
- PHribbon tool calculates embodied carbon of designs.
- Saffron Acres, Leicester, the UK’S largest Passivhaus residential development.
- Sustainability.
- The building as climate modifier.
- Warming houses using free CO2.
- Wood and carbon.
- Wood and passivhaus.
- Zero carbon homes.
- Zero carbon non-domestic buildings.
[edit] External references
- Passivhaus organisation.
- Passivhaus Trust.
- Passipedia.
- Passive House Institute.
- Passivhaus Outline specification
Featured articles and news
Conservation and transformation
Reading Ruskin’s cultural heritage. Book review.
Renovating Union Chain Bridge.
AI tools for planning, design, construction and management
A long, continually expanding list, any more to add?
Robots in the construction industry
From cultural characterisations to construction sites.
Empowering construction with AI integration
New horizons with a human touch.
Key AI related terms to be aware of
With explanations from the UK government.
A Better Hiring Toolkit for construction
Tooling up to hire under best practice standards in the sector.
Recharging Electrical Skills in Wales
Step by step collaborative solutions.
Ireland budget announcement 2025
CIOB responds with positivity, criticism and clarity.
The continued ISG fall out, where to go?
Support for ISG contractors, companies and employees.
New HES national centre for traditional building retrofit
Announced as HES publishes survey results which reveal strong support for retrofit.
Retrofit of Buildings, a CIOB Technical Publication
Expected to become one of the largest activities in the global construction industry.
Scope determination appeals and the Building Safety Act
Process explained following release of appeals guidance.
The ECA industry focus video channel
Keeping update with the industry session by session.
Over 25 recorded informations sessions freely available.
AT Awards 2024 ceremony East London October 25th.
Revisiting the AT community at the 2023 awards evening.