Passive Houses | Assignment

Passive Houses 1
PASSIVE HOUSES
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Passive Houses 2
Passive Houses
Introduction
Living in an old house a windy or cold day will often mean layering on more sweaters,
and a constant thermostat checking to ensure that the heat is on, which may be a source of
argument whenever you have roomies where you argue over who is turning the eat down or high.
The effect of cold and warm sports is not only felt in old houses but also in modern homes,
where the upstairs bedrooms become disturbingly toasty while the first floor spaces lose most of
the heat to the high ceiling. But with the passive house, the summer highs and winter woes are
eliminated and are things of the past. Passive houses offer a comfortable environment in the
home with consistent temperatures in all rooms. With a passive house, there is no thermostat
subterfuge required or need to for extra sweater layers during winter woes or summer highs.
Passive houses do not have thermostats at all because it sustains a comfy condition without the
air condition systems or a boiler or conventional furnace. So what is passive house exactly? This
paper will discuss more of passive housing where the following aspects will be covered; the
meaning of a passive house and its characteristics, importance of the passive housing and
technique that is used to construct a definite passive house. Lastly, the paper will analyse the
issue on new building regulation referred to as nearly Zero Energy Building (ZEB) and the new
regulations associated with ZEB. Below is the detailed discussion of the listed subheadings
which have been mentioned.
A Passive House
A passive house is a house which has been designed to be an energy efficient hence reducing the
energy demand and heating needs in that house, therefore leading to a reduced effect on the

Passive Houses 3
environment (James and Bill, 2016). Also, it can be defined as a house in which a comfortable
and uniform interior climate can be preserved and continued without active cooling or heating
systems being used. A passive house is a leading standard globally in energy efficient,
comfortability and affordability design (James and Bill, 2016). The passive house started in
Central Europe where it was developed and applied as a building concept for residential
constructions but due to its demand it has spread all over the world, and passive house standard
has been implemented in a type of building.
Passive House is a construction concept but not a brand name, and it can be useful to anyone
who correctly applies the idea to meet the set standards (Corner et al., 2017). For a building to be
certified as a passive house the following are the specific standards that it must fulfil as required
by the Passive House Institute. The first requirement is the building which has been constructed
by passive house must have a space heating demand which is less or equal to 15 kWh/(m2) per
year or a heating load of 10W/m2 as calculated by the Passivhaus package of planning (Corner et
al., 2017). Another standard is that the house should have a total primary energy consumption
which serves as the energy for hot water, heating and electricity which is less than 60kW/m2 per
annum. Lastly, another essential requirement of passive houses is that the building should have
air leakage which is less than 0.6 times the volume of the house per hour (Corner et al., 2017).
By considering the enclosure surface area, then the rate of leakage must be kept less than 0.05
ft3/min (Herk et al., 2016).
Passive House is characterised by the following:
Heavy insulation: This is the most critical component that is comprised in every passive
house which is a layer of super-efficient insulation that is continuously enfolded around the
building envelope and also underneath the concrete slab in the lower ground floor (Schnieders et

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al., 2015, p. 760). The insulation helps in minimising the transfer of heat between the outdoor
and indoor spaces.
Airtight Construction: airtight construction design is featured in passive houses to help
in eliminating the chances of humid outside air or moist air from getting into the house building
(Barreca and Fichera, 2015, p. 359). Moist or humid air has different effects like affecting air
quality, causing mould and even causing structural damage.
Passive houses do not contain thermal bridges: when air is heated inside a passive
house, it follows a pathway of minimum resistance to the outer side of the building (Barreca and
Fichera, 2015, p. 359). This is achieved because of the highly insulated walls, efficient windows
and doors.
Effective ventilation: this is an essential component that is passive houses. The
ventilation system is centrally located to ensure a continuous exchange of moist air from inside
the house and the filtered outside air (Schnieders et al., 2015, p. 760). This is to maintain a
comfy condition by ensuring constant humidity and temperature level.
Super-efficient windows: the design of the window for passive house bears a significant
consideration and varies with climatic changes from one region to another region (Barreca and
Fichera, 2015, p. 359). Commonly windows which are triple-paned and are of Low-E glazing
and insulated frames are used.
Technology for passive heating: passive house concept was majorly concentrating on
the ability to create a relaxed condition inside the house with the use of nothing but the fresh air
at the outside of the building. It is achieved by the use of ventilation air system air where the cold
air entering is heated by the warm air exiting (Schnieders et al., 2015, p. 760). The last