Abstract

Achieving Passive House certification requires super insulation which can significantly raise the embodied energy and carbon footprint of a project, effectively front-end loading the climate impact, especially where petrochemical foam-based products are used. This research sought to evaluate the use of straw bales - a low embodied energy, carbon sequestering agricultural by-product - to achieve PHIUS+2015 certification. A straw bale wall system was adapted to a single-family detached reference house designed to meet the Passive House standard. The wall system was evaluated for applicability across three Western Canadian cities using WUFI Passive energy simulation software to evaluate compliance; thermal bridging and hygrothermal performance were also evaluated. It was found that the proposed straw bale wall assembly satisfied the PHIUS+ 2015 requirements in all three locations - Saskatoon, Calgary, and Kelowna - with only minor changes required to the reference house design. The annual heating demand and peak heating load, the two targets most sensitive to design changes, were, respectively, 4% and 8.6% below the target in Saskatoon, 63.1% and 21.3% below in Calgary, and 63.1% and 32.6% below in Kelowna. The research also revealed that maintaining a high degree of air tightness is essential for satisfying the requirements. Overall, this research demonstrates that straw bales can be a beneficial component in creating high performance enclosures without exacting a large embodied carbon footprint.

Highlights

  • 1.1 IntroductionTo secure a safe, reliable and low carbon energy future, it is crucial that there be major improvements to the energy performance of Canada’s housing stock

  • While the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) contained specific interior lighting and consumer electronic loads, Passive House Institute US (PHIUS)+ requires the use of default reference quantities for these variables, one for PHIUS+ Interior Lighting, another for PHIUS+MELs

  • A typical ‘first-generation’ wall assembly comprised of a single width of bales on end with the interior and exterior bale faces plastered with 38mm of an earthen plaster was inputted to the PHIUS+ 2015-compliant models for each of the select cities

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Summary

Introduction

1.1 IntroductionTo secure a safe, reliable and low carbon energy future, it is crucial that there be major improvements to the energy performance of Canada’s housing stock. An 80% reduction in heating energy use is better aligned with meeting the net-zero target (Yip & Richman, 2015), which, in the short term at least, will be achieved by following the ‘performance path’ permitted by the standard, and likely through one of the voluntary energy performance programs offered in Canada. The atmospheric carbon captured through a plant’s lifecycle is locked within its tissues and is sequestered within the walls of a building over the life of the project These seemingly rudimentary bales produced by a machine that has changed little in 120 years are increasingly being used in novel ways in contemporary architecture worldwide, with projects in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australasia, Japan and China (Magwood, Mack, & Therrien, 2005; Holzhueter, 2010). Well executed designs seek to design around the bale module, maximizing the use of full bales, and resulting in a more buildable and efficient design

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