Design and realisation of the Passive House concept in different climate zones

The term Passive House refers to a performance-based energy standard for high-efficiency buildings. It is clearly defined, with validity for all climates of the world. Under cold climate conditions, the design typically focuses on minimising heat losses and optimising solar gains. In milder climates...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy efficiency 2020-12, Vol.13 (8), p.1561-1604
Main Authors: Schnieders, Jürgen, Eian, Tim Delhey, Filippi, Marco, Florez, Javier, Kaufmann, Berthold, Pallantzas, Stefanos, Paulsen, Monte, Reyes, Elena, Wassouf, Micheel, Yeh, Shih-Chieh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundary conditions
Climatic conditions
Design
Economics and Management
Energy
Energy Efficiency
Energy Policy
Environment
Environmental Economics
Humid climates
Insulation
Original Article
Renewable and Green Energy
Sustainable Development
User satisfaction
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Summary:The term Passive House refers to a performance-based energy standard for high-efficiency buildings. It is clearly defined, with validity for all climates of the world. Under cold climate conditions, the design typically focuses on minimising heat losses and optimising solar gains. In milder climates, moderate insulation, including improved window qualities, is sufficient, but on the other hand, the building performance during summer requires more careful consideration. For hotter climates, the insulation requirements increase again, and solar loads through windows, walls and roofs must be limited. In hot and humid climates, humidity loads are also minimised or reduced. In practical implementation, every Passive House has its own, specific boundary conditions which lead to different constructions and technical solutions to fulfil the stringent requirements of the Passive House standard. The paper briefly introduces Passive House design principles and criteria. Then, nine examples for passive houses in climates of Canada, the USA, Germany, China, Greece, Spain, Taiwan, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates illustrate the bandwidth of possible solutions. For many projects, practical experiences are available, which typically reveal high user satisfaction and energy consumptions close to what would be expected from the design calculations. In some cases, a potential for further improvements is described.
ISSN:1570-646X
1570-6478
DOI:10.1007/s12053-019-09819-6