Passive House

Passive House is a German originated design standard ‘Passivhaus’ that focuses on healthy, comfortable, energy efficient buildings. It is performance based and focuses on building fabric and materials to offer an effective thermal envelope in both Residential & Commercial and Institutional & Educational buildings. It considers key factors such as:

• Thermal Insulation - continuous all around the building envelope
• Air Tight Envelope - tested to a maximum leakage rate under high wind pressure
• Eliminating Thermal Bridges - no steel or concrete bridging from inside to outside
• Effective Ventilation - with inbuilt energy recovery heat exchangers
• Onsite renewable energy generation and storage - solar PV power as all-electric buildings •
• Orientation - to maximise passive heat in winter and natural shading in summer
• Energy Efficient Glazing - LowE Double Glazing and LowE Triple Glazing

An effective Passive House building could have no need for artificial heating and cooling. It can require up to 90% less energy to heat during colder periods and the remaining 10% it does require can come from your own body heat, from passive heat via the sun, appliances and even your light bulbs.

Download the Whitepaper for more information.