What is the Passive House standard?
Passive House is the world’s leading standard in energy efficient construction. The Passive House Standard stands for quality, comfort and energy efficiency. Passive Houses require very little energy to achieve a comfortable temperature year round, making conventional heating and air conditioning systems obsolete.
What R value is needed for Passive House?
For Passive House, most buildings require envelope performance levels in the range of R-40 to R-60 for walls, R-50 to R-90 for roof systems, and typically about R-30 to R-50 for sub-slab assemblies.
What is Passive House Australia?
‘Passive House’ is a design standard that achieves thermal comfort with minimal heating and cooling by using insulation, airtightness, appropriate window and door design, ventilation systems with heat recovery, and elimination of thermal bridges.
How much does it cost to build a Passive House in Australia?
An individual home can sit between say $1800 and $2500 per m2. Having said this there are lots of builders out there that won’t even touch a project for less than $3500 – $4000 per m2 even without taking energy efficiency into account. When it comes to passive house construction, Australia is still in its baby shoes.
What are the principles of Passivhaus?
The five principles of passive house design
- No thermal bridging.
- Superior windows.
- Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.
- Quality insulation.
- Airtight construction.
Is a passive house worth it?
Passive house construction can greatly reduce heating and cooling costs in buildings, and the concept is not limited to the residential sector. The main benefits of a passive house project are durability, high air quality, occupant comfort, and potential energy savings of over 90%.
What type of insulation is used in a passive house?
1. Thermal insulation. Thermal insulation for Passive Houses must be extremely effective and so thick walls are built up using ‘super insulation’ to achieve high R-values. High-grade insulation ensures that the home is well insulated all year round which stops heat gained from the sun from leaking out.
What insulation has the highest R-value?
Vacuum insulated panels have the highest R-value, approximately R-45 (in U.S. units) per inch; aerogel has the next highest R-value (about R-10 to R-30 per inch), followed by polyurethane (PUR) and phenolic foam insulations with R-7 per inch.
Can you open windows in a passive house?
Can you open windows in a Passive House? Passive House occupants may open windows whenever they want. The beauty of Passive House design, however, is that they won’t have to.
Are passive houses stuffy?
As passive houses are designed to be airtight, the building would get very stuffy and stale without a ventilation system.
Can you open a window in a passive house?
Can you open the windows in a Passive House? Yes, of course you can. Even though a Passive House must be built to a high level of air-tightness, you can, if you wish, leave windows open whenever you want. People usually open windows in their homes to let fresh air in.