Passive house

Passive house (German: Passivhaus) is a rigorous, voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building's ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. A similar standard, MINERGIE-P, is used in Switzerland. The standard is not confined to residential properties; several office buildings, schools, kindergartens and a supermarket have also been constructed to the standard. Passive design is not an attachment or supplement to architectural design, but a design process that integrates with architectural design. Although it is principally applied to new buildings, it has also been used for refurbishments. Passive house (German: Passivhaus) is a rigorous, voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building's ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. A similar standard, MINERGIE-P, is used in Switzerland. The standard is not confined to residential properties; several office buildings, schools, kindergartens and a supermarket have also been constructed to the standard. Passive design is not an attachment or supplement to architectural design, but a design process that integrates with architectural design. Although it is principally applied to new buildings, it has also been used for refurbishments. By late 2008, estimates of the number of Passivhaus buildings around the world ranged from 15,000 to 20,000 structures. As of August 2010, there were approximately 25,000 such certified structures of all types in Europe. The vast majority of passive structures have been built in German-speaking countries and Scandinavia. The Passivhaus standard originated from a conversation in May 1988 between Bo Adamson of Lund University, Sweden, and Wolfgang Feist of the Institut für Wohnen und Umwelt (Institute for Housing and the Environment, Darmstadt, Germany). Later, their concept was further developed through a number of research projects, aided by financial assistance from the German state of Hessen. Much of the early 'Passive Houses' were based on research and the experience of North American builders during the 1970s, who—in response to the oil embargo—sought to build homes that used very little or no energy. These designs often utilized the sun as a heat source and the term 'passive house' was possibly derived from the passive solar features of these houses, such as the Saskatchewan Conservation House and the Leger House in Pepperell, Massachusetts. The eventual construction of four row houses (terraced houses or town homes) was designed for four private clients by the architectural firm Bott, Ridder and Westermeyer. The first Passivhaus residences were built in Darmstadt in 1990, and occupied by the clients the following year. In September 1996, the Passivhaus-Institut was founded in Darmstadt to promote and control Passivhaus standards. As of 2010 an estimated 25,000+ Passivhaus structures have been built. Most are located in Germany and Austria, others in various countries worldwide. In 1996, after the concept had been validated at the Institute in Darmstadt, with space heating at 90% less than that required for a standard new building at the time, the Economical Passive Houses Working Group was created. This group developed the planning package and initiated the production of the innovative components that had been used, notably the windows and the high-efficiency ventilation systems. Meanwhile, further passive houses were built in Stuttgart (1993), Naumburg, Hesse, Wiesbaden, and Cologne (1997). Products, which had been developed for the Passivhaus standard were further commercialised during and following the European Union sponsored CEPHEUS project, which proved the concept in five European countries in the winter of 2000–2001. The first to be certified was built in 2006 near Bemidji, Minnesota in Camp Waldsee of the German Concordia Language Villages. The first US passive retrofit project, the remodeled craftsman O'Neill house in Sonoma, California was certified in July 2010. In the United States, the concept of passive design was first implemented by Katrin Klingenberg in 2003 when she built a passive home prototype named 'The Smith House' in Urbana, Illinois. From here, she and builder Mike Kernagis co-founded the e-cological Construction Laboratory (e-colab) in 2004 to further explore the feasibility of affordable passive design. This eventually lead to the inception of the Passive House Institute United States (PHIUS) in 2007. Since then, the PHIUS has released their PHIUS + 2015 Building Standard and has certified over 1,200 projects and 1.1 million square feet (100,000 m2) across the United States.