The Passive House Secret
1) The Passive House concept doesn’t only work on paper – Built Passive House examples
around the world prove that it also works in real buildings. See also: Passive House Data Base.
2) The Passive House concept has been proven to works in real life: Passive House – measurement results.
Several 1000s of Passive House dwellings have been monitored with respect to air quality, thermal comfort, energy
consumption and construction as well as operating costs. These results have been published. The results show that
the concept fully lives up to its promises: An improved level of comfort paired with extremely low energy
consumption - sustainably low.
3) Passive Houses are affordable.
Building professionals in several countries with different climatic conditions and building tradiations have shown:
It is possible to develop the Passive House Standard based on the existing experiences and knowledge in the
building sector. All it takes is: specific know how and best practice building components (i.e. windows, heat
recovery units). Passipedia is the knowledge database to dissiminate this development.
4) Passive Houses offer a maximum level of comfort.
For some 40 years the meaning of superior termal comfort has been well established on a scientific level: It was
the publication of Ole Fanger in 1972: “Thermal Comfort” whose results became the basis for modern international
standards on thermal comfort such as ISO
7730. The Passive House concept is based on a thorough analysis of how to achieve superior comfort levels with
mainly passive components in different circumstances of the natural environment.
5) Passive Houses are Passive House - sustainable.
6) Passives Houses mostly benefit regional manufacturers.
Products for Passive Houses are best practise products all around the world: Minimal U-values, superior window
energy performance, maximum heat recovery rates. These products are mainly produced by small and medium enterprises
on a local and regional level. This is adequate for passive components, because the resources are available
anywhere. Insulation materials e.g. can be produced from a lot of very different resources - the main material
always being just air included in small spaces, moving very slowly. The structural material can be wool, straw,
wood fibers, paper, mineral wool, several types of plastics, foamed calcium silicate, foamed glass, … This is an
open development and everybody is invited to contribute.
Source: http://passipedia.passiv.de/passipedia_en/basics/what_is_a_passive_house
| 
