Conceived more than three decades ago in Germany, the Passivhaus standard has shown what is possible when creatinghealthy, comfortable and low-energy buildings. There are now thousands of certified Passivhaus projects worldwide, ranging from homes and schools to commercial and healthcare buildings – many are award-winning exemplars. Those that occupy them are often evangelistic; they have seen their energy costs plummet, and their well-being improvewith instances of allergies and asthma reduced.
Passivhaus buildings result from meticulous attention to detail and rigorous design and construction, according to principles developed by the Passivhaus Institute, and are certified through an exacting quality assurance process. This means that the performance gap, often experienced in standard building design and construction, is eliminated and very little energy is used for heating and cooling. Passivhaus does not stop at new build. EnerPHit is a slightly relaxed standard for retrofit projects, where meeting the full Passivhaus standard is not feasible.
With the clear advantages that Passivhaus offers, it seems strange that the standard has not been more widely embraced. Indeed, why has government not mandated Passivhaus as the way to meet net-zero and help tackle the climate emergency? After all, buildings contribute to around 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions*1.
Cost is sometimes cited as a reason for not building to the Passivhaus standard. It was true once, but costs have significantly reduced over the years. As of 2018, best practice costs were only around 8% higher than comparable non-Passivhaus projects in the UK. When other factors are considered, these costs could come down to around 4% or less*2. This is a fairly minor uplift considering the significant advantages and, if adopted at scale, costs could fall lower.
Even when employing standard construction, there are many lessons to learn from Passivhaus. As a proven solution, it offers ways to raise overall build standards, make designs more efficient, achieve improved airtightness and reduce thermal bridging across both new and existing building stock.
*1
*2 https://www.passivhaustrust.
For further information, call 01786 812 921 or visit https://uk.westfraser.com/