Buildings use energy for space heating, hot water, cooling, ventilation and lighting aswell as powering our appliances and entertainment systems and although current Building Regulations Part L set some basic compliance standards to help reduce our energy consumption & CO2 emissions we can do a lot better.
We help our clients to design homes and workspaces so that they are cheaper to run, have more comfortable living & working environments and better indoor air quality by taking your project beyond Building Regs and towards Passive House. No longer the archetypal “Grand Design” project, using Passive House basic principles will reduce space heating demand, primary energy consumption and improve indoor comfort all year round.
Passivhaus or ‘Passive House’ is the fastest growing energy performance standard in the world with over 30,000 buildings completed to date. The Passivhaus strengths lie in the simplicity of its approach; build a house that has an excellent thermal performance, exceptional airtightness with mechanical ventilation and manage solar gain to maintain a comfortable indoor environment.
Passive House comprises a set of design principles used to attain a rigorous level of energy efficiency within a specific comfort level and built in accordance with these five building-science principles:
- Employs continuous insulation throughout its entire envelope with minimal thermal bridging.
- The building envelope is extremely airtight, preventing exfiltration & infiltration of outside air and conditioned air.
- Employs high-performance windows and doors, usually triple glazed.
- Uses MVHR system to manage the indoor air quality and recover waste heat.
- Solar gain is managed to use the sun’s energy for heating purposes in the heating season and to minimize overheating during the cooling season.
Passive building principles can be applied to all building types – from single dwellings, apartment blocks, offices and public buildings
