Tag: international standard

Posted on
by

Volkswagen has been caught out cheating emissions tests. There is a gap between the performance promised by the car manufacturer and how Volkswagen cars perform in reality. There has been strong reaction to this in many countries and in the media.

Does the same problem exist with our buildings? There is plenty of talk about the “performance gap” in the construction industry, but no major outcries like there has been with Volkswagen.

The building performance gap encompasses energy consumption, CO2 emissions and occupant comfort.

So, is building performance more complex than car performance? Or do we just accept that buildings don’t perform as predicted?

There is a whole host of reasons for the building performance gap. None of them are insurmountable, though.

How can I say this with confidence? Because there is ample evidence that the building performance gap can be eliminated.

The international Passivhaus Standard eliminates the building performance gap.

039 Mind the building performance gap
Continue reading →

Posted on
by

Perhaps you’ve heard the oft-cited African proverb: “It takes a village to raise a child.” Passivhaus is similar; it takes a whole team to successfully deliver a passivhaus project. The Passivhaus Standard requires an integrated approach to design so everyone on the team needs to be involved and to play their part.

Structural engineers need to design structure integrated with, not compromising, the thermal envelope. Building services engineers need to design the building as a whole system not as discrete items of equipment added to a building. Architects need to be aware of building services and structure and how they integrate as elements of the architecture. The passivhaus designer needs to be aware of the building shape, form, structure, services, physics and more. And the list goes on; the team of professionals working closely together on an individual passivhaus project can be quite extensive.

And looking beyond individual projects, passivhaus professionals share many common interests and goals. They want to deliver buildings that live up to their promises. They want to help tackle climate change. And more often than not, they want to work together and help each other succeed. Whether it is on specific projects, at conferences, or on social media, passivhaus professionals are very active in honestly sharing mistakes, lessons learnt, best practice and latest developments. There is a very strong global passivhaus community.

Community is a reason to Love Passivhaus!

021 Love Passivhaus Community
Continue reading →

Posted on
by

The Passivhaus Standard is the world’s foremost standard for energy efficient and comfortable buildings. Buildings certified to the Passivhaus Standard are often more energy efficient than conventional buildings by a factor of 10. In the face of climate change, architecture in the anthropocene must change. Buildings need to consume radically less energy to emit radically less CO2.

Buildings certified to the Passivhaus Standard are also incredibly successful at meeting design predictions. The performance gap is eliminated. And passivhaus buildings maintain their performance over time. The rigorous integrated design and quality assurance requirements of certification process for the Passivhaus Standard ensure this.

And yet there are many misunderstandings about what the Passivhaus Standard is. In some cases it gets confused with other aspirations. In other cases the standard gets accused of not being one thing or another, regardless of what it actually is! There is even a sense of the ‘tall poppy syndrome’ at play within the sustainable / green building community sometimes.

This blog will help clear up some of the common misconceptions around the Passivhaus Standard.

016 What the Passivhaus Standard is Not
Continue reading →