Study Resources / Research on Passive House/ Passivhaus

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Since the incorporation of the Passivhaus principle in 1980, the Passivhaus Institute in Darmstadt, Germany has done some intensive research on the optimisation of the thermal envelope of buildings in relation to the capital costs and energy savings. This led to the formation of minimum standards for building compoments in order to achive the heating demand of 15 kWh/m2yr, a threshold which makes a traditional heating system obsolete.

The first Passivhaus was build in Darmstadt Kranichstein, Germany in 1990 and has proven practically that 88% of the overall energy consumption could be reduced compared to the average German building stock. The measured data showed that the space heating demand was reduced by 95.6% compared to the average consumption (see image on the right).

Since 1990 more than 20,000 houses and other buildings have successfully been built in various European countries using this passive design.

Passipedia - the new online encyclopedia for Passive House

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