Durability of Building Fabric Components and Ventilation Systems in Passive Houses

By Passive House California , May 27, 2020 - Research

Wolfgang Feist & Rainer Pfluger & Wolfgang Hasper The passive house concept specifically improves insulation of exterior building components, utilization of passive solar gains, airtightness and heat recovery from ventilation air. Reducing also heat losses from thermal bridges, the energy balance is improved significantly resulting in net heating demands lower than 15 kWh/(m2a) which is less than one-tenth of the typical heating energy in the average of existing buildings. The…

Are the Energy Savings of the Passive House Standard Reliable? A Review of the As-built Thermal and Space Heating Performance of Passive House Dwellings from 1990 to 2018

By Passive House California , May 25, 2020 - Research

David Johnston |  Mark Siddall |  Oliver Ottinger | Soeren Peper | Wolfgang Feist Abstract The Passive House (PH) standard is a voluntary quality assurance standard focused upon maximizing the health and wellbeing of occupants, whilst reducing space heating demand to a very low level. To meet the PH standard, well-defined criteria have to be met. However, given literature that suggests a ‘performance gap’ for energy savings, the question remains, how well…