The term passive house (Passivhaus in German) refers to the Passivhaus standard for energy efficiency in buildings. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.
Passive design is not the attachment to or the supplement of architectural design, but rather an integrated design process with the architectural design. Although it is mostly applied to new buildings, it has also been used for refurbishments.
The heating costs for a typical Passive house will be in the region of a tenth of an ordinary house
Main Principles of Passive House
- Insulation to a very high U-value
- Airtghtness n50 = 0.6 1/h or less
- Solar Gain
- Heat recovery ventilation system
- Thermal Bridging minimized
Why build a Passive Hopuse
- 90% More energy efficient
- Excellent air quality
- Humity control
- No mould growth
- Comfortable internal tempreture
- Increased use of daylight
# Passive solar gain
# Passive Haus Design
# PHPP 2007 Passive House design calculations
# Minimise cold bridging
# Thermal imaging
# Airtight design
