verage medium sized house (approximately 80 square metres) can expect to have an annual energy bill of around £1,158.00, or £96.50 a month, according to UKPower.co.uk. A house the same size certified to the Passivhaus Standard would only have an annual energy bill of £115.80, or £9.65 a month. (This is very approximate as energy companies have standing charges that are usually fixed even if your energy usage is very low.)
To read more about how the Passivhaus Standard delivers radical energy efficiency by design follow this link.
The Passivhaus Standard provides a benchmark for how little energy we should expect to use in a comfortable and pleasant home.
The Passivhaus Standard: Reliable Quality Assurance
What good is a standard that doesn’t live up to its promises? The Passivhaus Standard is one of the very few sustainable design standards that has a robust and reliable track record of delivering what it promises – exemplary comfort and radical energy efficiency.
The Passivhaus Standard requires that the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) be used to model the house and the energy use. The PHPP is a very detailed spreadsheet developed by the Passivhaus Institute. It reliably and accurately predicts how much energy will be needed to keep a house comfortable at the benchmarks set by the standard.
The Passivhaus Standard requires that an independent third party, the certifier, check the energy modelling (PHPP) as part of the certification process. They also check key aspects of the design including construction details.
The Passivhaus Standard also requires that the construction process is monitored to ensure what gets built matches the design accurately. Where changes are needed, the energy model and details need to be updated and checked also.
These all add up to a very robust quality assurance process. Designers and builders are more vigilant knowing their work will be checked and verified. And honest mistakes can be picked up and corrected before something gets built wrong!
To read more about the quality assurance of the Passivhaus Standard certification process follow this link.
The quality assurance of the Passivhaus Standard certification process ensures the standard delivers what it promises.
What is the Passivhaus Standard?
There are many things that the Passivhaus Standard is not. What the Passivhaus Standard is, is the benchmark for exemplary comfort, radical energy efficiency and reliable quality assurance. And it needs all three aspects. Energy efficiency is meaningless if you house isn’t comfortable and pleasant to live in. And a standard is meaningless if it doesn’t deliver what it promises.
The Passivhaus Standard reliably ensures houses (and other buildings) provide exemplary comfort and radical energy efficiency. A house that is certified to the Passivhaus Standard will keep you comfortable and pleasant all year round with hardly any energy bills to pay!
The Passivhaus Standard is mostly a voluntary standard, however, a growing number of regions in Europe are requiring that all new buildings (and sometimes significant renovations also) meet the Passivhaus Standard. Other regions around the world are also encouraging new buildings to meet the standard as part of their climate change policy. Further details can be found on the Passive House legislation page on the International Passive House Association website.
The Passivhaus Standard: the benchmark for what we should expect from a comfortable, energy efficient, quality home.
Here is the `author presenting a 2-minute overview of the Passivhaus Standard.
About the author:
Elrond Burrell is an Architect, Writer & Speaker with over 15 years experience in designing and delivering excellent buildings. His areas of expertise are Sustainable Design, Passivhaus, Timber construction, and Building Information Modeling (BIM). He is a passionate advocate of these subjects and loves writing and speaking about them, as he often does in the UK and around the world. You can connect with Elrond via his website.
Elrond Burrell is an Associate at Architype Ltd, however, th