The Passive House is the world’s most energy-efficient building standard: a Passive House uses just 10% of the energy consumed by average Central European structures, resulting in energy savings of up to 90%. The owners of Passive Houses are unconcerned about rising energy costs.
For heating and cooling, Passive Houses consume less than 15 kWh/(m2yr) (relating to the living space)
The maximum heating/cooling load is set at 10 W/m2.
Conventional Primary energy usage may not exceed 120 kWh/(m2a), but renewable energy supply (PER) with no more than 60 kWh/(m2a) is the way of the future. With passive homes, this is simple to do.
Air change rates must be limited to n50 = 0.6 per hour in passive houses.
Excessive temperatures are unlikely to occur more than 10% of the time in warmer areas and/or during the summer months.
The Passive House is a sustainable building design that offers low-cost, high-quality structures as well as comfortable, healthy living environments. And its concepts are simple to comprehend:
- Because modern structures are becoming more airtight, ventilation through joints and gaps is no longer enough to supply fresh interior air. Neither opening the windows nor closing them will help. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is the basic performance goal, and fresh air is not only a matter of comfort but also a need for healthy living.
- As a result, ventilation systems will be a critical component of all future home construction and renovations.
- Even while ventilation systems are more expensive, to begin with, they will save a significant amount of money in the long run if they are high-efficiency systems. Any building’s running expenses will be reduced with Passive House grade ventilation systems.
- The Passive House idea comes into play here: Why not use the enormous volumes of fresh outside air that must be delivered to the building for heating? – Without any additional air, without any recirculation of air, without any obtrusive noise or drafts? As a result, the ventilation system pays for itself twice.
- This “supply air heating” idea only works in buildings that are well insulated, such as Passive Houses. To ensure that the needed heat can be delivered by the supply air, the transmission and infiltration heating load must be less than 10 W/m2.