Passivhaus

Hello again, how is everyone doing? Hope you are all doing as well or better than I am. So here we are again, sharing knowledge on how to make this world into a better place to live and I find that the technologies nowadays are so advance. Most of our equipment are labelled with "Energy Star" rating.

Although we have the technologies and hardwares but if it were to be used unnecessarily , it's still wasting energy. So the design of the building also plays an important role. We'll look into the design of houses that are energy efficient building. We call this as Passive House.

What is Passive House?

We've heard about passive personality, passive action, passive maintenance and so on but do you know that we also have passive house? Passive house comes from the term "Passivhaus" in German that refers to a standard or benchmark for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint.

Passive house can give positive result in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. It can give comfortable, affordable and ecological environment at the same time.

The Design

The passive house is designed for comfort, quality, ecology/sustainability, affordability, measurement results, versatility and retrofits. I'll not go into too technical about this design because it involves engineering data and architectural calculation which may confuse the readers.

Comfort - The Passive House Standard offers a new level of quality pairing a maximum level of comfort both during cold and warm months with reasonable construction costs.

Quality - Passive Houses are praised for their efficiency due to their high level of insulation and their airtight design. Another important principle is “thermal bridge free design which means the insulation is applied without any “weak spots” around the whole building so as to eliminate cold corners as well as excessive heat losses. This method is another essential principle assuring a high level of quality and comfort in Passive Houses while preventing damages due to moisture build up.

Ecology/Sustainability - Passive Houses are eco-friendly by definition. They use extremely little primary energy, leaving sufficient energy resources for all future generations without causing any environmental damage. The additional energy required for their construction (embodied energy) is rather insignificant compared with the energy they save later on. This seems so obvious that there is no immediate need for additional illustrations. It is rather worth mentioning though, that the Passive Houses standard provides this level of sustainability for anyone who wish to build or renovate at an affordable price. This is a contribution to protect the environment.

Affordability - Passive Houses not only save money over the long term, but are surprisingly affordable to begin with. The investment in higher quality building components required by the Passive House standard is mitigated by the elimination of expensive heating and cooling systems. Additional financial support increasingly available in many countries makes building a Passive House all the more feasible.

Measurement Results - Measurements carried out in 114 Passive House apartments which were part of the CEPHEUS project showed average savings of approx. 90%. In other words, the Passive House is a “factor 10 house” which only uses one tenth of the energy used by average houses. The passive house concept delivers - the savings are real, there is no performance gap.

Versatility - Any competent architect can design a Passive House, after going through the Passivhaus Institute certification. By combining individual measures, any new building anywhere in the world can be designed to reach the Passive House standard. The versatile Passive House Standard is also increasingly being used for non-residential buildings such as administrative buildings and schools. Education on the design of passive houses is available on a global level with a lot of different professional trainers.

Retrofits - The Passive House Standard can also be achieved in retrofits using Passive House components. Existing buildings account for the greatest share of energy used in buildings. A great number of these buildings will require overall or partial refurbishment or modernisation in the near future. Such occasions are perfect opportunities to reduce the energy consumption of these buildings quite significantly by applying appropriate methods. Using components developed for new Passive Houses also allows for significant energy savings in existing buildings.

Do we need Passive House?

After reading the article above, many would think: Do we really need Passive Houses?

Everyone will have their opinion on this issue but I shall share a few reasons on why we should construct Passive House.

1) It fundamentally addresses the climate crisis imperative. To mitigate the worst effects of climate change we are required to decarbonize our economies while meeting the demands of global development.

2) It is affordable in both construction and occupancy. The methodology results in only an added overall construction cost premium of approximately 15% to 20% because the construction costs for high performance elements are substantially offset by a reduction in heating and cooling systems sizing.

3) It produces the most comfortable and healthy indoor environments. With airtightness, continuous insulation, high quality windows and other measures, Passive Houses often have the most comfortable, quiet and draft free environments.   With continuous low-volume ventilation providing filtered fresh air to living and working spaces and exhausting stale air from service spaces, the indoor air is free of dangerous concentrations of typical contaminants.  And unlike buildings that rely on manual ventilation, people in a Passive House can open and close windows whenever they wish

4) It enables nearly zero energy buildings. Building specific renewable energy production can be complicated and expensive – with space requirements often making it prohibitive. With a building’s energy demand minimized with Passive House, renewable requirements become far smaller, more affordable and achievable.

5) It locks in energy savings for future generations. Unlike renewable energy production or energy saving machinery that requires active maintenance and replacement, Passive House emphasizes things like insulation, airtightness and external shading that will save energy today, tomorrow and everyday into the future without significant maintenance or replacement costs.

6) It enables a more resilient power grid.  By substantially reducing peak power demand and enabling local renewable power sources, utility system redundancies and a more robust power distribution system are possible.

You don't need a lot of green gizmos for a passive house. In contrast with a “normal house“, the cost burden is considerably less for the construction of a Passive House, even if energy costs do not increase in the future. The Passive House Standard is therefore economically attractive – even though the profits are not as enormously high as sometimes promised.

Hope this post brings some enlightenment to the readers out there about this green building concept and do their part in preserving this world for future generations. Adios~