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Passive Houses – the Secrets

By Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Feist, University of Innsbruck and Passive House Institute , May 2010 

If you want to explore all the secrets … just look at www.passipedia.org 

I am often asked: What is the secret behind the success of Passive Houses? Why did it

became the leading orientation for buildings of the future worldwide?

I collected some reasons, may be that these are not complete – I might have to add some

other ones. But this is, why I think, Passive Houses became the yardstick for the

measurement of sustainable construction.

1) It's practice, not just theory http://bit.ly/PassiveHouseExamples 

There are Ten thousands of realized Passive Houses, Thousands of them with a

thorough documentation. The Passive House concept is open to the public – it’snot a secret!

2) It's working http://j.mp/PH_monitoring 

Lot’s of advertisement has been made in the past for lot’s of energy saving

promises – not all of them had shown to be valid. The Passive House concept is

clearly stated, it’s published, it has been demonstrated and lot’s of examples havebeen monitored. There is a solid statistics for the energy savings achieved: And

these are tremendous: In the range of 90% of the heating energy used in

conventional existing buildings are shown to be saved in practice. And still some

80% saved compared to typical new-built which fulfil contemporary requirements of

the governments. That is what we call tried and tested, well approved. 

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3) It's affordable Passive House Life Cycle Cost Analysis 

Still a lot of economists

think, that being sustainable

will be more expensive than

the traditional path. WithPassive Houses this is not

true: The concept is clever

enough, not to add a lot of

expensive hackneyed ideas

to the building. But to

improve the components

needed anyhow (roofs,

walls, windows, ventilation)

in a way, that the result is

much more efficient. Themain concept behind is to simplify the building – and that is best done by reducing

it’s energy losses. All these losses go through the building envelope – so, it’s the

envelope, which has to be improved. This helps to reduce the additional

investment costs (yes, there are additional investment costs – but these are small

and these are quite lucrative investments, see graph). The graph above has been

recalculated compared to prior publications in March 2011, because boundary

conditions have changed again: The extra investments have been reduced due to

more market available products and energy prices are much higher now.

The Passive House concept additionally helps saving money on the investment of

able, already now; normal people can

4) a Passive House there is always best indoor air quality

the energy supply system: That is, what the concept is made for. Because energy

supply was getting and is getting more and more expensive – because we are

running out of the cheap energy sources.

So, Passive Houses turn out to be afford

afford to build a Passive House; you do not have to be a rich person; may be, in

the future, the Passive House will become the only housing standard which will

remain to be affordable, if you do not want to spend a lot of your money for energy

 – but still want to stay comfortable. May be, this time has already come now.

Inhttp://j.mp/PH_ventilation 

Most engineers see ventilation still mainly as a tool for cooling, heating and other

the fresh air inlet of the ventilation system, whichkeeps at least 95% of all dust – so, even in an emergency, the air in a Passive

House is much more healthy.

simple thermal issues. But the most important task is Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). It is

important for the health of humans living in a building to have good quality indoor

air. The Passive House concept has a big emphasis on healthy indoor condition:

There is always a sufficient fresh air supply. And the success for better air has

been monitored and validated.

There is a particle filter (>F7) in

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“Too cheap to meter”

You remember that promise fr

5)

om the nuclear industry? Electricity will drop in costs

s far, that it will not be wise to even measure the consumption you have – this

in and again, last time, in connection with the liberation of

many is some 250 € (per year!). That’s what others normally

y efficiency”-path is much more economi-

sive for the consumers.

6)

a

kind of promise came agathe market for electricity. In reality most of us have seen electricity prices rising in

the past decades – and where it didn’t rise, there have been significant tax payer

paid subventions. This is not surprising – as long as our electricity consumption

mainly depends on not sustainable energy sources – which are going to be more

and more expensive.

But: Now, in a Passive House, the total energy consumption is so low, that it is not

necessary to meter. You heard right – the heating bill in a typical 100 m² Passive

House dwelling in Ger

pay per month. The costs for doing the measurements of heat consumption is inthe range of 100 €/yr. And doing the measurement, you might save 15% of the

energy – that would be just some 38 €/yr – it’ not worth the effort! Therefore, there

are already projects, in which measurements have been totally suspended and a

“flat rate” has been announced instead.

So, efficiency can already today fulfil a promise , energy suppliers came up with

 – but never came even near to make it happen.

Or, to say it in another way: The “energ

cally attractive than the “oil, coal and nuclear”-path. It’s not just cleaner, healthier

and environmentally sound – it’s also less expen

 

Everybody can learn it: http://bit.ly/PassDesign 

So, the secret is – that it is NOT a secret. Every architect

and every civil engineer can learn how to build a Passive

me information needed, some

7)

House. Yes, there is so

know how required. It’s like learning to swim or learning

to ride a bike. But, after being informed about the

principle and after having gained some experience – 

everyone, who can build a home also can build aPassive House. There are special educational programs

available in all parts of Europe and America to learn this

competence.

default http://bit.ly/PassComfort Best thermal comfort by

With a well insulated building envelope a home, an office and every other space

used by persons automatically has improved indoor thermal comfort conditions,

perature differences.less temperature differences, less drafts, less radiation tem

Liz Male put it this way: “Passivhaus is a fantastic comfort standard(not just energy & carbon standard) – that will make it a

winning proposition”. Bill Butcher: “This is green without the

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sack cloth. There's no sacrifice to be made. Even without the

environmental benefits, Passivhauses are simply better places

to live: incredibly bright, clean and fresh.”

Figure: In a really wellinsulated home, like a

Passive House, there

8) ture Award 2010

are no big differences

in the radiation tem-

peratures. This is

reason for best

possible thermal

comfort.

Passive Houses are of great architectural advantage Architec  

Such a tough energy standard is an advantage for architecture (!?) – yes, it is. You see

from these projects of the 2010 Passive House Architecture Award – and you can

understand, why this inspires architects by looking at this video: http://j.mp/arch_approach_PH. 

ow to learn more about Passive Houses?

• There is lot of information available on the internet: A full basic course on passive houses you find here:

Passive House course

 

H

. And a growing resource is this: Passipedia, http://bit.ly/ PASSIpedia  

.mp/PassHouse_CNN• May be, you would like to see a video first? CNN made this one: http://j ; and

another video: http://j.mp/Eek_PassH 

• You find Passive House Associations already in a lot of countries. And here is the international Passive

House Association iPHA: http://www.passivehouse-international.org/ Everybody can join.

• You may order the small booklet “Active for more comfort: The Passive House” which gives b

information for anybody, who wants to k

asic

now more about the passive house. You get it from iPHA.

• There is an International Passive House Conference. It takes place in different places around the world.

• There are post graduate educations offered for becoming a Passive House expert.