The Passivhaus Standard – what exactly does it mean?

Airtight construction

Airtight construction

A very airtight building envelope is crucial to achieve the Passivhaus standard. This can be done through meticulous sealing of any gap, cracks, or poor joints that can allow drafts or leakage of warm air. This airtightness prevents energy losses and allows the building to maintain comfortable temperatures with less energy use.

Maximum insulation

Maximum insulation

The Passivhaus standard recommends high levels of insulation throughout a building, from the outer walls to even below the flloorboards, thereby minimising heat loss. Such levels of insulation help retain warmth in the colder months, drastically reducing energy requirements for heating and sometimes even cooling.

High performance windows

High performance windows

Windows in Passivhaus Buildings should be high quality, triple-glazed, with insulated frames and a low emissivity coating on the interior that can reflect heat back inside. This provides excellent insulation while still allowing abundant natural light into the building. The windows optimise solar heat gains in the winter, whilst helping to keep heat in.

Thermal bridge minimisation

Thermal bridge minimisation

All buildings typically suffer from heat loss through thermal bridging: heat traveling from the inside to the outside via a “bridge” of some sort, such as timber joists that reach the outer face of a building, via any insulation, thereby completely bypassing it’s thermal protective properties

Ventilation with heat recovery

Ventilation with heat recovery

Fresh air is continuously circulated through an energy recovery ventilator, HVAC, that retains the heating or cooling energy from the exhausted stale air, and transfers it to the incoming fresh air. The is provides good indoor air quality without the energy losses from conventional ventilation.

Welcome to the new Public-facing home of the UK Passivhaus Industry.

 

This site has been set up as an attempt to start to help unify the industry as it grows. Up until now, there seems to have been a distinct lack of end-user friendly information online. The sources are disjointed, an article here, a report there, and that just won’t do.

The main aim of this site is to provide a free-to-use database of Certified Passivhaus, and Retrofit Professionals, accessed thorough a simple menu, based on postcodes as shown to the right here. 

Further to that, we will be sharing regular news and 3rd party job postings related to the industry. And, once things are up and running fully, we will be producing our own Podcast and YouTube content.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, we will also be trying to offer support to the Public, and to the Tradespeople, the “boots on the ground,” as the majority of the industry actually revolves around you. This can be done through communicating with us directly, or simply contacting other professionals through our menu.

UK Passivhaus Professionals menu screenshot

The often over-looked benefits of the Comfort a Passivhaus provides.

 

The Passivhaus standard ensures buildings, particularly homes, are constructed to a point where they offer unparalleled comfort as well as “net-zero” style sustainability. How is that possible? Well let’s explore some of the key features:

 

Consistent temperatures.

The super-insulated thermal envelope of a Passivhaus keeps interior surfaces as well as the air, at pleasant temperatures – at a target of 20 degress centigrade, all year-round. That means no more cold breezes or draughts, and no more freezing floors or cold patches! The indoor climate stays comfortable and consistent without crazy temperature swings, all of the time.

Fresh, clean air.

The purposefully designed HVAC systems present in almost all Certified Passivhaus buildings, provide not only a constant supply of fresh, filtered air throughout, but it recovers heat from the air being expelled, adding to the sustainability of the building. This ensures excellent indoor air quality, and reduces dust and allergens. Many of those who live in a Passivhaus have observed how it is often “nicer” indoors than out!

 

Silence.

Due to the windows and doors in a Passivhaus being of the highest possible standard, and almost always triple-glazed, outdoor noise is almost entirely cut-out. The HVAC systems also operate very quietly and are often well placed, away from calm ears. You can sleep peacefully without disruption from the outdoors.

 

No more bugs!

A very prominent but little mentioned benefit of a Passivhaus building, is the lack of bugs! No more house-spiders or other creepy crawlies, as there is nowhere for them to get in, or hang around! The only time you may get bugs, is if you leave the windows or doors open too long, or are unlucky enough to bring them in with you from trips around the park or something. If you don’t like bugs, that’s all the reason you need to get a Passivhaus!

 

Lower bills.

Is that comfort, really? Well ask yourself this – if you know your heating bill is going to be 10% or less of what you’re normally used to, wouldn’t that give you peace of mind and help you stay relaxed, especially in this day and age!?

 

No special operation.

The design of such buildings is so highly detailed, that they literally “run themselves.” Obviously you need to change the filter in the HVAC and try to remember to close your windows where necessary, but other than that, a Passivhaus requires little to now operation – it’s all in the design, not the mechanics.

 

Additional benefits.

In addition to the physical and psychological benefits mentioned above, a Passivhaus offers many other advantages too, such as general sustainability pros from not only the durability and longevity of the building materials, but increasingly the low “inbuilt carbon” levels needed to produce those materials in the first place. They are designed to be resilient and last at least a 100 years. But most importantly, as has been heard through the Passivhaus Grape Vine – “I can walk around barefoot all winter long without getting cold feet” – and who doesn’t want that!

How are we doing?

This is quite a task and at this point, we have a general direction, and we have a Captain, and the plan is to sail where the wind takes us. However, from our point of view, it’s quite uncharted waters and so we are actively seeking guides. If you think there is something we should be doing, someone we should be speaking to, something we’re missing, please, get in touch and let us know!

Quick contact

If you have any generic questions or something to share, please feel free to use this form. If it is something more detailed or important, please contact us through the information the “contact us” page.