Passive House (Energy Efficient Housing)

Passive House is a design concept which is applied to house construction in order to dramatically reduce the amount of energy buildings need to keep them comfortable to live in. The aim is to reduce energy consumption by up to 90%.

The original idea of Passive House was to use natural means such as orienting the building in the most advantageous direction, absorbing or shielding the suns rays and/or using natural ventilation to regulate the temperature within a building.

These ideas have lead to modified concepts such as “Passivhaus” managed by the “Passivhaus Institut” based in Darmstadt, Germany, which focusses on reducing energy consumption. The “Passivhaus” and its certification processes have, in fact, become an industry in themselves with the creation of a worldwide network of consultants, architects and inspectors who pay to be trained and certified so they can charge fees to advise, design and certify buildings.

But time is moving on and developments continue with broader based concepts emerging that take holistic approaches to the construction of buildings, incorporating strategies that protect and enhance the world’s climate and environment. Such initiatives include the Green Product Council Indonesia, a non government, non profit based organisation committed to environmental responsibility in building design and construction.

These initiatives are being widely applied across the world and have resulted in the creation of new industries manufacturing specialist products such as construction materials that are less damaging to the environment and energy saving building components such as heat and draft insulating materials for roofs, walls, floors, windows and doors.

Five basic Building Design Principles

Passive House principles incorporate five ways of saving energy.

1. Optimised orientation.
2. Insulated Envelope.
3. Airtight envelope.
4. Elimination of Thermal Bridges.
5. Mechanical ventilation.

1. Optimised Orientation

By considering the track and elevation of the sun, the direction a building faces and the placement of windows and doors has a considerable impact on how much heat from the sun’s rays a building will absorb and how much cooling can be harnessed from prevailing winds. By carefully considering these factors in the building design major energy savings are made.

2. Insulated Envelope

Insulation prevents the passage of heat into or out of a building through roof, walls, floors, windows and doors. Insulation can be added to a building in the form of insulation materials or incorporated by carefully selecting the building materials themselves.

3. Airtight Envelope.

Anyone who has lived in a cold climate knows how even the warmest of rooms can be quickly chilled by drafts mostly through windows or under doors. Passive house design seeks to totally eliminate air leakage into or out of the building through the use of non air permeable construction materials and the use of sealing tape in joints. Pressure testing of buildings is used to find air leakages and to measure how airtight they are

4. Elimination of Thermal Bridges.

Anything that directly connects between the exterior and interior surface of a building can transfer heat. This is especially the case with metal components such as copper or aluminium pipes, window frames and even door handles. Clever design and selection of materials can avoid thermal bridges and greatly reduce energy loss.

5. Mechanical Ventilation

Passive Haus principles include the use of energy driven mechanical ventilation systems that are designed to allow free airflow into and out of buildings while saving energy by transferring heat between the incoming and outgoing air.

Insulation “R Values”

R Values have become a key tool in Passive House design. They are used to allow designers and building certifiers to estimate the effectiveness of these five principles and allow certification to be carried out based on objectively calculated results.

R values can be determined for whole buildings as well as for the materials used to build them. You can find an explanation of Insulation R Values along with a list of typical R values for construction materials in our recent article https://www.mrfixitbali.com/insulation-and-r-values.html

The Passive House and Tropical Climates

The passive house concept was originally conceived in Northern Europe where the aim is to keep buildings warm by harnessing the suns rays and reducing heating costs.

The whole concept is to create a self contained space which is totally isolated from the external environment. In such climates the temperature difference between the interior and exterior of a building may be as much as 30 degrees C (in places such as Canada temperature difference can be much much higher) and especially between day and night. Humidity is not such an issue as it is dealt with by heating which dries out the air.

Tropical climates are quite different, temperatures don’t vary anywhere near as much and the challenge of dealing with humidity is not an easy problem to solve. Creating comfortable living spaces is often achieved through the use of open, ventilated building design that makes use of prevailing breezes and natural convection currents. Difficulties do arise on hot days when the air is still and temperatures build up.

The best solution for hot climates is to design buildings that combine the two approaches with airy open living areas that have high ceilings and other rooms, such as workrooms and bedrooms, that follow Passive House principles. Small spaces that are airtight and have high levels of insulation can use very small air conditioners to dry the air and cool the space.

If you are considering building or renovating a building you might not be able to achieve the 90% energy savings that Passive House can yield but, by considering the R values of the materials you select and incorporating some of the five principles above, it is not difficult to make some significant financial savings on your energy bills.

Previous “Fixed Abode” articles can be found subject indexed on our website at www.mrfixitbali.com. Opinions expressed are those of Phil Wilson. He can be contacted through the website or the office on 0361 288 789 or 08123 847 852.