Saturday, April 27, 2024

A Guide to Passive Houses: Designs, Costs and Benefits

passive house

The software helps to determine everything from the optimal size and location of windows and the recommended capacity for the ventilation system, to suggestions for minimizing construction costs without compromising quality or efficiency. And in this one sentence it places at the core, the occupant and hygienic ventilation – the importance of good indoor air quality. Ventilation is used as an organizational pivot point that reorients the project. It puts the occupant at the center of the equation – their comfort and health while simultaneously requiring a very low capacity for heating and cooling energy to achieve it. The goals of comfort and health are supported by energy efficiency, and the goal of energy efficiency is supported by health and comfort – they become interdependent and upend our conventional wisdom.

Mechanical ventilation

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The PHPP is an Excel based tool which allows the designer to simulate the behavior of the building both during ‘peak’ times, in winter and summer,  and over an entire year. It is a flexible, easy to use model that allows for quick iterations and design alternate evaluations – taking into account different real world assumptions and possible future scenarios. The Passive House Standard criteria, which you can download from the PHI website, passivehouse.com, only takes up about 15 comfortably spaced pages. The power and reach of the Passive House Standard is it’s inherent simplicity and flexibility.

It’s a platform to reach your sustainability goals. >See also Passive House Definitions

Passive House moves upstream to the root causes and decouples power from performance. [Read a historical review of Passive House.] Out of the 1990 experiment, the passive house concept, was distilled into a definition – a functional definition – we could call it a platonic or idealized definition. Passive house designs enable us to build houses that save energy, improve air quality and reduce noise pollution. Maria and Todd of IdS/R Architecture pinpoint the essential five principles of passive house construction in these diagrams.

In terms of energy use, how does a passive house compare to a standard house?

Phius is the cost-optimized, climate-tailored standard for passive buildings on the path to zero energy. In addition, Phius is the only passive standard where your home (or building) is quality assured by a third party, so you can count on an extremely comfortable, healthy, and resilient structure that's built to last. Controlling solar radiation is key for optimized design and preventing overheating in passive buildings. Phius-optimized buildings balance solar radiation — taking advantage of it when needed and shading when not to lighten the cooling load and maximize energy efficiency. Passive building is a set of design principles for attaining a rigorous level of energy efficiency while also creating comfortable indoor living spaces.

Air Control

Even modern homes can be susceptible to warm and cold spots, with upstairs bedrooms becoming uncomfortably toasty and first-floor spaces losing heat to high ceilings or drafty fireplaces. Passive House describing a building built using the Passive House methodology, and meeting the criteria of the Passive House Standard. Today, we see a wonderful variety of Passive House buildings meeting the standard. Case studies showcase real-life examples of how we can build Passive House buildings and near zero energy homes.

Green building materials

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No, they aren’t bound to any specific style, but they have defining features, such as thick walls (which allow for super insulation) and triple-glazed windows. Design-wise they take many forms, from traditional to modern and from simple to complex. Alternatively, an earth to air heat exchanger can use a liquid circuit instead of an air circuit, with a heat exchanger (battery) on the supply air. Exterior wall color, when the surface allows choice, for reflection or absorption insolation qualities depends on the predominant year-round ambient outdoor temperature.

A zero-carbon future starts right here with our locally tailored, globally applicable passive building standards. Windows and doors are designed to minimize heat transfer far more effectively than normal windows, to the point that they feel as warm inside as the air, eliminating condensation in winter. They are airtight to maintain that airtight building layer, and are carefully sized and treated with coatings to admit solar gain in cool seasons without overheating in warm seasons.

Since the process of building a home passive is carefully planned, there is almost no room for error. High-quality and durable materials are selected to create a passive home which leads to less maintenance and more bang for your buck. Not only is the internal temperature of a passive home very comfortable, but the air is much higher quality. The ventilation systems of these homes filter out allergens like pollen and dust more efficiently than a typical home, keeping the air fresh and free from any pollutants that could irritate those with allergies. “Passive construction focuses on heating and cooling, but as it has evolved, it’s become sort of a tool in the toolbox of people who are trying to achieve net-zero buildings,” explains Knezovich. A German physicist and a Swedish scientist later developed the metrics for what would become the gold standard of passive buildings; and the Passive House Institute, founded in 1996 in Darmstadt, Germany, remains the authority on passive construction principles.

passive house

It is not always possible to achieve the PASSIVE HOUSE standard for refurbishments of existing buildings therefore EnerPHit is the PASSIVE HOUSE certificate for retrofits. Although passive house design was born in the 1970s, it is becoming more top-of-mind as homeowners across the country face climate-related challenges. Here are some of the positives and negatives to evaluate when considering either purchasing a new home with passive house design or deciding to retrofit a current home to meet those standards. The Phius Alliance, comprised of local U.S. chapters, is a leading proponent of code and other regulatory changes incorporating passive building standards. Conventional wisdom holds efficiency as a sacrifice – turn down the thermostat, put on a sweater indoors.

While fully converting a space to be more eco-friendly might seem out of reach (or out of pocket), sustainable design is a lot easier to pull off than you think. Appliances, building materials, heating systems, and a slew of other home components can all work toward achieving the goal of sustainability. Whether you’re buying a house and want to take note of the home’s ability to add green features or you’re building your own custom eco home, here are the features that experts suggest you consider for eco homes.

Due to the need for an airtight envelope, passive retrofitting works best when the whole building is involved. This is no problem for a single-family home, but if you live in a townhouse, condominium, or another type of multi-unit space, you’ll be faced with the task of getting the other property owner(s) on board with the idea. Passive houses use ultra-high-performance glazing systems to ensure an airtight seal. Windows are double- or even triple-paned, are framed in nonconductive materials, and may be filled with an insulating gas. The objective of a passive house is to optimize efficiency, which is why the criteria for construction are so important.

Free heat is generated from electrical and gas appliances such as ovens and lightbulbs as well as body temperature. In warmer climates, where heating isn’t as necessary, a passive home uses shade to help cool the internal temperature — making for a highly efficient indoor environment no matter where you live. Keep reading or jump straight to our infographic to learn all about what a passive house is, how it works, and why you should invest as a landlord.

Staffed mostly by Navajo workers, ZenniHome has a goal for its factory to become the highest-producing housing factory in the world. When expansion is completed by the end of 2025, the factory is expected to produce up to 25 homes a day. ZenniHome is currently already producing homes; earlier this month, nine units were delivered to Los Milics Vineyards near Tucson, Arizona. By leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and data analytics, smart homes can adapt to occupants’ preferences and environmental conditions to maximize efficiency and comfort. If you were to keep the windows open all night, every night, this could affect the internal temperature and increase your energy use – but even then, it shouldn’t cause any issues. You don’t need special furniture, but to meet all the requirements for Passive House status, you do need to check your furniture, and even the paints you use to decorate your home.

Education on the design of passive house buildings is available on a global level with a lot of different professional trainers. Airtightness is cornerstone to passive building design for both durability of the enclosure as well as energy savings achieved by minimizing infiltration of outside air and loss of conditioned air. Passive buildings achieve air control by air sealing the enclosure and then providing balanced, mechanical ventilation to achieve superior indoor air quality. This is due to the fact that people, on average, emit heat equivalent to 100 watts each of radiated thermal energy. The PHIUS + 2015 Standard primarily focuses on reducing negative effects of building operations, for any type of building. This standard also uses climate data sets to determine specific building performance criteria for different regions.

"He reached out and said, 'Hey, I'm looking for X number of dollars for three months, and I'll give you 10% interest,'" she said. Doug Fox is a project manager at Fullcast, a Silicon Slopes-based end-to-end RevOps platform that allows companies to design, manage and track the performance of their revenue-generating teams. As the demand for sustainable housing continues to grow, so too will the innovation and creativity driving this transformative movement toward a more sustainable and harmonious built environment. The homes provided by ZenniHome to the Navajo Nation will address the critical housing need and stimulate economic development.

It is fundamental to the design that all the heat required can be transported by the normal low air volume required for ventilation. A maximum air temperature of 50 °C (122 °F) is applied, to prevent any possible smell of scorching from dust that escapes the filters in the system. Achieving the major decrease in heating energy consumption required by the standard involves a shift in approach to building design and construction.

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