Passive House Construction Research Articles

The Impact of Passive House Construction on Energy Consumption and Living Experience in Chongqing

This research investigates the impact of passive house construction on energy consumption and living experience in Chongqing, China. The study involves both primary and secondary methodology, which is represented in both qualitative and quantitative formats. The primary research evidence is collected from an online questionnaire and interviews with designers and engineers in the industry. The secondary evidence is collected from a range of online sources including relevant and credible academic articles, essays and news reports, and government reports. A case study based on a passive house project in Hebei is used to compare with passive house construction in Chongqing. The key areas considered in the study are the environment, policies, and social aspects and the impact of passive house construction on the living experience of the residents. The research concludes that passive house construction has positive results from both climate and policy perspectives. In terms of climate, it is environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. The development of more policies technologies will be the main driving force or motivation for more passive house construction.

Passive House Design: A Possible Energy Efficient Option in the Building Sector of Nepal

The diversified geography of Nepal creates huge variations in the country's climatic zones; however, the building industry has so far used standardized methods that tend to neglect local climate conditions. Most of these standards then rely on energy-intensive mechanical systems to maintain indoor thermal comfort, without considering more viable and climate-responsive design methods. In this light, the development of a climate classification related to building design will help develop and encourage energy- and climate-effective building architecture in Nepal. The existing energy-saving practice in the building sector of the country is reviewed in this paper, and it outlines ways to improve the adaptation of energy-efficient methodology. It shows that passive houses are performing much better in comparison with modern constructions that are behind in terms of energy efficiency when compared with traditional homes. The study outlines the climate-specific design criteria and methodologies for various regions and sets the path for exploration of the passive house design process challenges and opportunities that might exist for wider diffusion. Also discussed are strategies to overcome the barriers and promote passive house construction, offering a pathway toward sustainable building practices in Nepal.

Passive House performance evaluation and key management factor analysis in the Sino-German Ecopark: A study through fieldwork and interdisciplinary joint research

In terms of eco-friendliness, China is far behind advanced western countries. Recently, however, several places in China have been collaborating with the German Passive House Institute to construct eco-friendly buildings on a large scale. This study intends to analyze the passive house construction technology being implemented in the eco-friendly buildings that have been completed or are under construction at the Sino-German Ecopark in Qingdao, among several other complexes, based on fieldwork and interdisciplinary joint research. This study compares the importance of key factors through analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. This study aims to extract and present factors of high difficulty noted in the successful construction of passive houses by examining the fieldwork of three case projects at the Sino-German Ecopark. These factors were divided into three categories: technical factors, policy factors, and managerial factors. Through AHP analysis, it was determined that the policy factors were of higher importance than technical and managerial factors. Barrier-free facilities were the most important factor among all the policy factors, and the window system was the most important among the technical factors. In the case of management factors, project management ability proved to be the most important factor. The findings of this study are expected to serve as a guideline that should be considered in the future Passive House design and construction process.

Qualitative risk assessment of passive house design and construction processes

Global climate change and increasing energy costs as well as environmental concerns have led to increased worldwide interests in passive buildings, which have minimal energy consumption and reduced environmental impact. Passive houses design and construction processes are much more complex than it is in the case of buildings developed in the traditional standard and they are associated with many risks. In this work, the selected problems related to the design and construction of passive buildings were presented. The risks were divided into three categories: problems with the architectural and construction design, problems with the installation design, and problems at the building site. All in all, 30 risks in the design and construction of passive houses were identified. Their causes, consequences, and possibilities of detection were investigated. Qualitative risk assessment of passive houses design and construction applying Failure Mode and Effect Analysis was presented. That allowed it allowed to gather information for making decisions in the risk management process. The qualitative risk assessment results (the list of the most important risk factors, their causes, consequences, and detection possibilities) enhance avoiding undesirable problems and errors, as well as additional costs associated with the project failure and support meeting the deadline for the passive house investment. The qualitative risk assessment results are also the starting point for development of a comprehensive risk management model for the design and construction of a passive building.

Use of technical hemp for concrete - Hempcrete

We live at the time of trying to reduce the carbon footprint, which also involves the production of building insulation. Today’s trend is the construction of passive houses with the best insulation and reduced heating costs. By reducing the incineration of non-renewable sources for heating, we will reduce the carbon footprint, but by increasing the classical building thermal insulation, whether based on plastics or minerals. A suitable option is natural materials. This article deals with the use of technical hemp in concrete. Hemp is a historically widely used plant, but its decline has occurred due to its similarity to the THC variety, so this plant is now more known for its narcotic effects. For use in construction, industry, etc., the Cannabis Sativa L. variety, so-called Technical Hemp with negligible THC content, is used. Today, the use of technical cannabis is rediscovered. By adding technical hemp to the concrete, we improve the thermal properties of the concrete to the detriment of strength properties. The article describes different properties of the hemp concrete compared to the conventional concrete. In the building construction industry, it is known for the use in the cannabis insulation, hemp concrete, hemp oils and varnishes, Honeycomb plaster, ropes and strands. The best known are the cannabis insulation in the form of mats and hemp ropes, but there is also a widespread use of cannabis, which is discussed in this article. By measuring, the compressive strengths of the cannulated concrete were 1.13 MPa, which is comparable to that of the lightweight concrete and foam concrete. From this finding, that hemp concrete can be used as a filler material, nickels as a carrier material. This concrete can be used as a binder, both hydraulic lime and cement. However, when using cement, it is necessary to mineralize the shaker, which is a laborious and long-lasting activity.

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT CLIMATES ON A SHIPPING CONTAINER PASSIVE HOUSE IN CANADA

ABSTRACT Passive House buildings with an annual energy demand of less than 15 kWh/m2a (i.e. kWh/m2 per annum) can help Canada and other countries achieve thermal comfort with minimum energy use and carbon footprint through meticulous design and selection of highly efficient building envelope elements and appliances. Shipping container based passive houses can reduce the cost of passive house construction and also promote recycling. In this paper, a passive house built using shipping containers, originally designed for Victoria, BC, Canada, is analyzed using Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software in different climactic zones of Canada. The locations under consideration are: Halifax (Cool–Temperate), Toronto (Cold–Temperate), Edmonton (Cold), and Yellowknife (Arctic–Climate). This paper critically examines the energy demand changes in various climate zones and make necessary modifications to the design to achieve passive house energy performance requirements in selected climates. Results show that with modified designs shipping container passive houses can meet passive house requirements, except in the Arctic–Climate of Yellowknife.

CASE STUDIES OF THE DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND CERTIFICATION OF ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOUSES IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Passive houses with three principles of comfort, low energy and economic efficiency started from Germany in 2009. Passive houses must have a heating energy demand of less than 15 kWh/(m²a) per year, and there are currently about 4,000 passive houses certified in Europe. Currently, Korea has begun experimental construction of passive houses from 2005, and it started to introduce it in construction market from 2009. To date, 160 units have been certified, which differs from Europe in that Korea is certified as a passive house up to 50 kWh/(m²a). In order to establish this standard, Passive House Institute Korea (PHIKO) collected and analyzed the data of the completed buildings over the years. As a result, Korea Passive House standard was newly defined considering the climatic condition (humidity and solar radiation) of Korea and the lifestyle of floor-heating and sitting on that. Of course, these standards are not definitive, and they are still underway, and if more data is accumulated, the standards can change.

A high performance home in the Mediterranean climate: from the design principle to actual measurements

Experience developed in the northern European countries led, in the last decades, to standard and shared procedures for the design and construction of passive houses and similar high performance buildings. These approaches are specifically developed for cold climates, therefore cannot be directly applied to the Mediterranean climate, where substantially different climatic conditions must be challenged.The design and early monitoring of a customized zero energy house, located in Sicily, is proposed as an exemplary case study for the future generation of high performance and nearly-zero energy buildings in the Mediterranean area. The key role played by the control of heat gains, and the correct use of thermal mass is highlighted, showing similarities and differences with passive houses built in the North Europe. The measurements of energy and environmental performance of the building show the effectiveness of the response of the adopted design approach to the specific climatic conditions.

Passive house / Passivhaus / casa passiva: Metaphorik im europäischen Diskurs des nachhaltigen Bauens

The paper presents the results of a linguistic analysis of English, German and Italian texts, whose topic is bioarchitecture. The texts are diatopic and diaphasic variable. They belong to the textual genre of web sites, i.e. presentations of institutes and of producers, and they refer to the specific topic of construction of passive houses. Metaphors are analysed in order to find models of conceptualisation in the three languages, showing similarities or differences according to the perspective adopted (whether qualitative or quantitative). The topological similarities between German and English and the differences between German/ English as Germanic languages and Italian as a Romance language are not always to be found in the conceptualisation of metaphors.

The diffusion of green innovation technology in the construction industry: European passive house knowledge transfer to China

The booming Chinese construction market has created both economic growth and environmental problems. Some 65,000 buildings in Europe have been constructed in accordance with the voluntary construction standard called Passive House that aims for energy efficiency. In China, however, by 2015, only 20 such projects were planned and only two Passive House projects were completed. In this paper, we identify and describe the barriers to the diffusion and adoption of Passive House construction in China. We review the relevant literature (Chinese and Western) and conduct two case studies of Passive House construction in China. Two broad groups of barriers - the bounded rationality of construction developers/managers and the high transaction costs of green innovation - are found to be most responsible for the slow diffusion and adoption of the Passive House concept in China. Unless these barriers are overcome, prospects for the advance of green technology in the Chinese construction market are unfavourable.

Whole-building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a passive house of the sub-tropical climatic zone

The Passive House concept requires the incorporation of a combination of energy-efficient solutions, which despite their benefits they also burden the environmental performance of the passive house construction with additional resource depletion and energy consumption. The aim of this work is to implement a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a passive house located in an island state, having an insular energy system, within the sub-tropical climatic zone. For the implementation of the life-cycle study, the building environmental assessment tool EcoHestia was employed. Under this context, the environmental performance of the passive house was established and presented on (a) a construction material breakdown basis and (b) a building element breakdown basis. Additionally, the optimization of the passive house design was defined through a parameterization analysis of its embodied energy and primary energy demand. The findings of this work indicated that concrete (C20C25) is the greatest contributor across all environmental impact categories, except in the abiotic depletion of elements category, where tiles were found to be responsible for more than the 65% of the total impact. The analysis also indicated that the foundations and floors and the wall systems are contributing considerably to the environmental performance of the passive house. Additionally, a parametric analysis indicated that employing insulating materials in the building's wall systems can have a beneficial effect in the energy efficiency of a building, without burdening substantially its total embodied energy.

A Study on the POE-based Energy Utilization Satisfaction Analysis for Passive House in Germany

Passive House represents energy-saving technologies. It aims to save energy and provide comfort to the dwellers. The design and construction began in Germany, where it is commonly observed. In South Korea, implementation of the Passive House concept is difficult because of high construction costs and technological problems. This study performed a POE analysis to analyze the extents of satisfaction and knowledge about Passive House among those who live in them in Germany. The results found high satisfaction with functional aspects, such as ventilation, windows, doors, and the thermal bridge. These research results will provide application criteria for Passive House construction in South Korea.

Hygro-Thermal Behaviour of Timber Frame Straw Bale Construction as an Energy Efficient Building Technology

Due to an increasing request for ecological building constructions, in particular straw bale buildings, a research in this regard has been performed at the Vienna University of Technology. Straw bale construction is a new rediscovered building technology, which is an alternative to conventional construction technologies. The aim of this study is caring out of hygro-thermal simulation of a straw bale wall construction to design as efficiently as possible straw bale house. The choose of other construction elements for a thermal analysis (appropriate wall, roof and a base plate construction), was based on an extensive literature researche. For the examination of the building a timber frame construction has been selected. The straw bales in this construction were plastered inside with clay plaster and externally with a combination of lime and clay plaster. The roof structure was designed as a green roof and insulated with straw bales. The base plate was also insulated with straw bales. To check the thermal behavior of the structures described above were thermal bridges calculated using a FEM program. The hygrothermal behavior was calculated with HAM4D building physic software, developed on the department for Buildings Physics and Sound Protection on Vienna University of Technology. Ecological and economic evaluation of straw bale construction was carried out with reference to the data from the literature. The performed thermal (with COMSOL) and the first hygrothermal calculations (with HAM4D Software) have demonstrated a very favorable performance of the proposed building components. The achieved low U-values ​​of the components allow the construction of passive houses. The use of self-build-service in the construction process can reduce construction costs significantly. The use of ecological materials such as: straw, clay and wood allows a low cost recycling of building materials.

A Study on Design Improvement for Application of Sandwich Insulation System

The heat loss through the envelope accounts for the largest portion of the energy consumption in a building. It takes up more than 40% of the total heating and cooling energy. Therefore, a high performance insulation envelope technology that is 80% more energy efficient than the existing systems should be the basis of passive house construction. This study aims to improve the detailed design for efficient application of sandwich insulation system. And finally, an optimal sandwich insulation detail was selected.

Lecablock, an Alternative Construction Material for the Exterior Walls of Passive House

In this paper it is attempted to investigate the Leca blocks as sustainable construction material for the exterior walls of passive house. The building physical properties of Leca design wall structure are studied along with the environmental impact and load-bearing capacity. To compare the results, a similar analysis is carried out considering the traditional wooden wall construction of passive houses. The results showed that Leca design wall structure can be an alternative sustainable solution to the traditional wooden wall structure of passive house, mainly due to its low U-value, its ability to handle moisture, and comparable structural load-bearing capacity. However, the wooden wall structure is more environmentally friendly than the Leca blocks due to its lower emissions to the environment and reduced energy use, especially during the manufacturing process.

Geographical aspects of the diffusion of passive houses

Abstract In our days, energy issues belong to the most important problems facing the Earth and the solution may be expected partly from decreasing the amount of the energy used and partly from the increased utilisation of renewable energy resources. A substantial part of energy consumption is related to buildings and includes, inter alia, the use for cooling/heating, lighting and cooking purposes. In the view of the above, special attention has been paid to minimising the energy consumption of buildings since the late 1980s. Within the framework of that, the passive house was created, a building in which the thermal comfort can be achieved solely by postheating or postcooling of the fresh air mass without a need for recirculated air. The aim of the paper is to study the changes in the construction of passive houses over time. In addition, the differences between the geographical locations and the observable peculiarities with regard to the individual building types are also presented.

Review of low-energy construction, air tightness, ventilation strategies and indoor radon: results from Finnish houses and apartments

Low-energy and passive house construction practices are characterised by increased insulation, high air tightness of the building shell and controlled mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. As a result of the interaction of mechanical ventilation and high air tightness, the pressure difference in a building can be markedly enhanced. This may lead to elevated indoor radon levels. Minor leakages in the foundation can affect the radon concentration, even in the case where such leaks do not markedly reduce the total air tightness. The potential for high pressures to affect indoor radon concentrations markedly increases when the air tightness ACH50, i.e. the air change per hour induced by a pressure difference of 50 Pa, is <1.0 h(-1). Pressure differences in Finnish low-rise residential houses having mechanical supply and exhaust ventilation with heat recovery (MSEV) are typically 2-3 Pa, clearly lower than the values of 5-9 Pa in houses with only mechanical exhaust ventilation (MEV). In MSEV houses, radon concentrations are typically 30% lower than in MEV houses. In new MSEV houses with an ACH50 of 0.6 h(-1), the limit for passive construction, the analytical estimates predict an increase of 100% in the radon concentration compared with older houses with an ACH50 of 4.0 h(-1). This poses a challenge for efficient radon prevention in new construction. Radon concentrations are typically 30% lower in houses with two storeys compared with only one storey. The introduction of an MSEV ventilation strategy in typically very airtight apartments has markedly reduced pressure differences and radon concentrations.

Comparison of passive house construction types using analytic hierarchy process

In this study, in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the most common construction materials, different constructions types for passive houses, such as solid wood, wood-frame, aerated concrete, and brick, were compared with each other. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a widely used multi-criteria method, was applied to quantify the comparison. The analysis of different construction types based on quantifying different criteria for passive houses was performed on a case study. The AHP analysis revealed that the highest ranking criteria came into play here, notably well-being, the psychological aspect, and functionality in the wood construction considered as one of the most suitable options for passive houses. The AHP analysis can help professionals and future dwellers to make a reasonable choice on further optimizing and developing a particular aspect of the building process by giving them the possibility of comparing different alternatives on a common and comprehensive basis. In the light of the growing importance of energy-efficient building methods, it could be said that wood construction would play an increasingly important role in the future.

공동주택 주동형태별 세대위치에 따른 일사분석 및 난방부하 절감요소에 관한 연구

This study aims to evaluate the correlation between vertical solar radiation and the level of heating load according to the location and type of housing in multi-family apartments. This study shows that heating load is related with factors such as wall loss, window loss, ventilation loss and solar radiation gain. The heating load increases in the order of the middle floors, the highest floors and the lowest floors. The lowest and the highest floors are the most vulnerable floors, and it should be as emphasized as the middle floors. The heating load saving proposal contains 52 Alt. that shows heating load savings from min. 4% to max. 49%. The goal is to reduce the heating load of the highest and the lowest floors to the level of the middle floors. The result showed that there are 3 Alt. for the lowest floors and 16 Alt. for the highest floors as the heating load saving proposal. This study suggests integrated application to compose saving elements of heating load. so it could be utilized as a data for the construction of passive houses.

Passive House Construction - What is the Difference Compared to Traditional Construction?

Passive House Construction - What is the Difference Compared to Traditional Construction?