A passive house in your region with your climate.

The Passive House Institute set up by Dr. Wolfgang Feist has developed several passive house building techniques to suit the central European climate.  However, it would be incorrect to copy details from the central European example to other parts of the world. Instead, the details should be found to suit the climate and geographic conditions to develop a passive house solution for each location. The local building traditions and specific climate conditions must be considered. Previously mistakes were made where Californian building techniques were copied to projects in Europe giving poor results.

The definition of a passive house is that the peak heating load should be projected to a lower level than 10W/m2. If the max load is lower than 10W/m2 the ventilation system can distribute all the heat needed throughout the building. There is almost no extra benefit gained by increasing efficiencies beyond this 10W/m2 threshold.

A passive house has a very low energy demand for maintaining interior comfort in the heating season. The heating demand is so low that the environmental impact is negligible even if fossil fuels such as oil, gas, or coal are the heating sources. There are also no problems with primary energy resources.


The basic principles of passive house design;