Outside of the Building Regulations, the Passivhaus Standard is considered by critics as the most significant contribution to improving the energy efficiency of buildings. Elrond Burrell, architect and author of the popular blog 'Passivhaus in Plain English & More' gives us an overview of the Passivhaus Standard.
The Passivhaus Standard is often referred to as “the world‘s leading standard in energy efficient design.” And usually a description of the standard includes details of the specific technical requirements. (If you are curious about the technical requirements, I cover the key elements in this post.)
The Passivhaus Standard is indeed an international, rigorous, scientific, performance standard for the design and construction of energy efficient buildings. It applies to all kinds of buildings, not just houses. However, the Passivhaus Standard is not just about the technical requirements of energy efficient design, it encompasses:
Energy Efficiency, and
It is the combination of these three key aspects that make the Passivhaus Standard what it is.
A house that is certified to the Passivhaus Standard provides exemplary comfort all year round. While the standard is known for rigorous energy consumption benchmarks, it also has rigorous comfort benchmarks.
The Passivhaus Standard ensures that a house can be affordably and reliably kept at a comfortable temperature all year round. This is true in hot periods of the year and in cold periods. The actual temperature inside the house is up to you though – some people prefer a cooler house, others prefer a very warm house.
The comfortable temperature inside the house includes the surfaces of walls, windows and doors, etc. The Passivhaus Standard requires high-performance windows and doors so that the frames and the glass never feel cold to touch or be near. This also has the benefit of eliminating condensation, which can lead to mould growth and associated health risks.
The Passivhaus Standard ensures that a house is quiet inside and does not suffer from draughts.
The Passivhaus Standard ensures that a house always has plentiful clean fresh air. A ventilation system is required in most climates to comply with the standard. This means that even when it is cold and windy outside, or hot and dry, there is still fresh air silently and gently blown into the rooms of the house at a comfortable temperature. Windows and doors can still be opened whenever you want to, just like any other well-designed house. Equally important though, windows can be closed whenever you want to and there will still be plenty of fresh air throughout the house. More information about passivhaus ventilation can be found at this link.
To read more about the comfort aspects of the Passivhaus Standard follow this link.
The Passivhaus Standard provides a benchmark for what we should expect from a comfortable home.
The Passivhaus Standard: Radical Energy Efficiency
A house that is certified to the Passivhaus Standard uses very little energy to stay exceptionally comfortable all year round – and for you to do all the other things that you would expect to in your house. The Passivhaus Standard accounts for all the energy use in a house, from the heating and cooling, the cooking and lighting, through to TV and computer use.
The Passivhaus Standard ensures that your house uses very little energy because of the way it is designed and constructed. It does not rely on adding renewable energy generation systems to provide (or offset) some of your energy needs, although this is possible. It also does not rely on you making dramatic changes in your lifestyle to use less energy.
The result is that a house certified to the Passivhaus Standard could be using up to 90% less energy that an average house. And it comes with exceptional comfort, far better than an average house. Even compared to a typical new house, which is expected to be more energy efficient than average, a house certified to the Passivhaus Standard would expect to use up to 75% less energy. And this means power bills reduced by up to 75% also!
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