Passive House
As Certified Passive House Designers and members of the Passive House Association of Ireland, we are trained experts in helping clients achieve the highest levels of energy efficiency and build quality for their projects, even with the most limited of budgets. Although not all our clients will choose to build a fully certified Passive House, we inherently implement Passive House principles into each of our projects to achieve not only the best possible levels of energy efficiency and lowest running costs, but also the highest levels of comfort for the buildings’ occupants. With rising energy costs now and into the future, it makes sense to design to the most energy efficient standards possible, far exceeding the requirements of the current Building Regulations.
If you share our passion for energy efficient design and superior building comfort, contact us today to learn how we can help your project outperform and stand above the rest, even with a limited budget.
What is a Passive House?
Established in 1996 by Dr Wolfgang Feist of the Passivhaus Institute in Darmstadt, Germany, Passive House is a world leading building standard and pioneering concept for the construction of low-energy buildings.
Passive Houses, as the name implies, make best use of the ‘passive’ influences in a building such as solar gain, shading and ventilation, rather than relying on ‘active’ heating and cooling systems such as central heating and air conditioning, thus allowing Passive Houses to use up to 90% less energy than a typical house.
In addition to their superior energy efficiency, Passive Houses also offer their occupants superior comfort due to consistent comfortable temperatures and a constant fresh air supply. Passive Houses are draught free and also have the added benefit of reducing both external and internal noise due to high levels of insulation in the walls and triple glazed windows.
How does a Passive House work?
The Passive House standard is built on a set of 5 basic principles:
Thermal insulation - high quality insulation in the building’s thermal envelope is essential in retaining the heat within a building. Without the correct levels of insulation in a building’s thermal envelope, it will be very difficult to retain the heat inside the building, thus increasing the heating requirement and energy demand.
Airtightness - again coming back to the building’s envelope, an airtight building envelope is essential in reducing heat loss through uncontrolled airflow or leakage of the warm air from inside the building.
Thermal bridge free - this goes hand in hand with the above point and ensures that there are no weak spots or ‘thermal bridges’ in the thermal insulation of the building’s envelope.
Windows - superior windows with insulated window frames and triple glazing are essential in a Passive House. A Passive House should be orientated correctly to have a large area of south facing glazing. The glazing should have a high solar energy transmittance to make use of the sun’s energy, also known as ‘solar gain’. It is this solar gain that contributes to the reduction of the space heating demand, thus saving energy and lowering heating costs.
Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) - to ensure a fresh air supply within a Passive House, all rooms inside the thermal envelope must be ventilated by a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery. This ensures that stale air inside the building is replaced with fresh air from outside, and in the process, the heat from the extracted air is exchanged or ‘recovered’ to heat the fresh air coming into the building, thus also maintaining a comfortable internal temperature.