What is a passive house?

“Passive house” as a term

The term “passive house” appeared about 25 years ago in Germany.

In May 1988, Professor Bo Adamson from Sweden and Wolfgang Feist from Germany developed the concept of a residential building that would consume a minimum amount of energy for heating and domestic hot water.

This made it possible to significantly reduce the need for traditional heating appliances.

According to the calculations, solar heat, heat from residents, household appliances and a properly organized ventilation system with heat recovery should be sufficient for heating such a house.

Based on the preliminary calculations, a house project was developed that included:

architectural energy-efficient solutions;
a ventilation system with a heat recovery unit — a heat exchanger in which warm air leaving the rooms preheats the cold air entering the house;
a ventilation control system with air quality monitoring;
new energy-saving window frames;
special energy-efficient structural details;
the use of solar heat;
a system for recovering heat from wastewater.

The first passive house with four apartments and a usable area of 624 m2 was built in 1991 in Darmstadt, Germany.

the first passive house in Darmstadt

The main task in the construction of this house was to preserve heat and reduce energy consumption.

Domestic hot water was provided by a solar collector.
The house was equipped with mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.

However, after the building was put into operation, it became clear that achieving maximum energy savings only by preserving heat was not enough. It was also necessary to minimize the electricity consumption required for household appliances, electronics and lighting.

From the moment the house was put into operation, that is, since 1991, energy consumption in the building has been continuously monitored.

As a result, already in the first year of operation, the energy consumption for heating an apartment in the passive house was 12 times lower than in a standard apartment in an ordinary building.

After a small modernization of household appliances and adjustment of all systems, energy consumption in the second year of operation was reduced by 1.7 times — from 19.8 to 11.8 kWh/(m2·year).

Later, the energy consumption of the house was reduced by another 15%.

energy consumption analysis in a passive house

It should be noted that the first experimental passive house proved the possibility of creating a comfortable residential building with very low energy consumption and fully met the expectations of its creators.

In 1996, Wolfgang Feist founded the Passive House Institute, which began to standardize the process of designing and building passive houses.

A working group of this institute developed the computer program PHPP — Passive House Planning Package. It is used to check the energy balance when designing passive houses, as well as to verify design solutions when modernizing old buildings.

From that moment, active construction of second-generation passive houses began. The design and production of components intended for passive house construction also started: windows, ventilation systems, structural details and other equipment.

In December 2009, the European Union adopted the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. It provided that by 2020 all new buildings should be close to energy-neutral.

This means that new and modernized buildings should meet high energy efficiency requirements close to the passive house standard.

By 2013, more than 50,000 passive houses had been built worldwide.

Note for those who plan to build a passive house

A house with an area of 130 m2, designed and built according to passive house requirements, can consume about 283 m3 of gas per year for heating. In 2017 prices, this corresponded to approximately 1870 UAH per year.

If you want to learn more about the possibility of building a passive house in Ukraine, contact us for a consultation. We will help you find rational solutions for maximum heat savings in your house.