Effortlessly Efficient: Benefits of Living in Passive House for a family of 5
Passive house building techniques are available to all kinds of houses and buildings. In this video, we'll show you how a family of 5 people lives in a passive house.
The house is located near Antwerp, Belgium, which is a rather cold climate.
A passive house is one of the world’s leading energy efficiency standards. It’s also a construction concept made to build comfortable, environmentally friendly homes and buildings.
Passive building is a standard that is truly energy efficient, comfortable and ecological at the same time.
Passive house building is based on these principles:
1. No thermal bridging
2. Superior windows
3. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery
4. Quality insulation
5. Airtight construction
The design and construction of a passive house is focused on making best use of the “passive” influences in a building - like sunshine, shading and ventilation.
Different from a regular building, a passive house re-uses the existing heat and doesn’t entirely rely on active heating and cooling systems such as air conditioning or central heating. There should be a very high level of insulation and airtightness, to make it possible for a passive home to use up to 90 percent less energy than a more traditional building which operates on fossile fuel or electrical heating.
Passive house buildings also offer superior comfort because of consistent temperatures and excellent air quality, since the air is refreshed all the time by mechanical ventilation systems. Also they have the added benefit of reducing noises because the insulation is so extensive.
A Passive House is more than just a low-energy building.
Similar energy savings have been demonstrated in warm climates where buildings require more energy for cooling than for heating.
Passive House buildings are also praised for their high level of comfort. They use energy sources inside the building such as the body heat from the residents or solar heat entering the building.
Windows with excellent insulation are fitted in wide and well insulated walls to keep the heat inside during the winter and to keep it cool during the summer.
When a passive house is closed air-tight, of course it needs a consistent supply of fresh air without causing any unpleasant draughts. For heating, usually there’s highly efficient heat recovery of the exhaust air so it can be re-used.
Just in case of excessive extreme temperatures, it’s always possible to make extra use of more traditional heating sources to heat or cool if needed.
Passive houses are based on these principles:
continuous insulation throughout the whole building shell while avoiding any thermal bridges via windows, walls or the roof
The building shell is extremely airtight, preventing infiltration of outside air and loss of interior conditioned air
They make use of high-performance windows to exploit the sun’s energy for heating purposes in the winter and to minimize overheating during the summer season
There will be some kind of balanced heat - and moisture recovery ventilation
The shape of the building is constructed in such a way that it keeps the heat within
Passive building principles can be applied to all building typologies - from single-family homes to multifamily apartment buildings, offices, and skyscrapers.
Continuous mechanical ventilation of fresh filtered air provides excellent indoor air quality.
Superb insulation and air-tight construction provide unmatched comfort. Even in extreme weather conditions.
Video production by mindfulbuildingandliving.com/