Passive House Design Research Articles

Critical discussion of a shading calculation method for low energy building and passive house design

Solar energy gains are among the most important aspects in the design of very low energy buildings like passive houses. An optimization of solar gains reduces the required heating demand, however too high solar gains can lead to overheating issues.Most methods for building energy ratings and building energy certificates use a monthly balance based calculation procedure. Also the current methodology for passive house assessment and certification is a monthly balance based one. To incorporate shading by fixed elements as an influence on solar gains into those methods, some simplifications are necessary.This paper discusses the current implementation of the shading calculation in the passive house verification method. Based on comparison tests of the current method with an advanced shading calculation method shortcomings of the existing method are discussed. It is shown that the current algorithms for static calculation sometimes give erroneous and unreliable results. The impact on the different assessment criteria, energy demand and loads as well as overheating, exceeds acceptable margins of error.

Bioclimatic Analysis in Pre‐Design Stage of Passive House in Indonesia

The objective of this study is to investigate the climate characteristics of Indonesian regions using an Olgyay Bioclimatic chart, a Givoni–Milne Bioclimatic chart and a Mahoney Table as the pre‐design stage in the development of a passive house design standard for residential house construction in Indonesia. Jakarta was the city chosen for deep analysis, because it represents most of the Indonesian regions in terms of temperature and relative humidity. The Olgyay Bioclimatic chart showed that the climate needs a high wind velocity to counteract the vapor pressure and shading in order to reduce solar gain entering the building. The Givoni–Milne Bioclimatic chart proposed natural ventilation and shading devices, while the Mahoney Table recommends open spaces for protection against hot wind, rooms single‐banked and permanent provision for air movement. The composite size of the opening at body height is better to allow the wind to counter the high levels of humidity and temperature. Heavy walls and roofs are suggested, as well as the provision of protection devices for the high amount of rainfall. Energy simulation was also done to investigate the effectiveness of the passive strategy proposed by the bioclimatic analysis. These results give a contribution as the indispensable basis for the development of a passive house standard in Indonesia.

Passive House and Low Energy Buildings: Barriers and Opportunities for Future Development within UK Practice

This paper describes research carried out to understand better the current and future emphases emerging from practice for the design and development of “Passive House” and low energy buildings. The paper initially discusses the extant position, particularly with regards to the UK and considers how regulation and assessment systems have changed in recent years, as well as projecting ideas forward taking account of contemporary political situations. Relevant previous research into Passive House and low energy design and construction is then reviewed. The need for greater understanding of professionals and their communication/collaboration with clients were identified as important factors impacting development. Those involved in the design and construction practice therefore have key roles in the process of enhancing energy efficiency. Five industry/practice based professional organizations were interviewed in-depth to gain insights into their experience of current low energy design, and to extrapolate the outcomes to future scenarios. The method employed used a structured interview technique with key question areas to lead the discussion. The anonymized responses discussed are grouped around key themes. Evidence suggests there has been a move towards the adoption of voluntary high level standards because of potential limitations with mandatory regulations and because of perceived additional benefits of higher quality design. This change is now more than previously, being driven by informed clients, design professionals, and the industry, with regulation taking a secondary role. New opportunities and barriers are becoming evident and these require further consideration.

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.

Study on the Passive House Design Direction Suitable for Korean Climate and Residential Environment

Study on the Passive House Design Direction Suitable for Korean Climate and Residential Environment

Building Integrated Photovoltaic System for a Solar Infrastructure: Liv-lib’ Project

The growing importance of sustainability and passive house design requires the reconsideration of integrating the solar PV modules in both buildings and architectural design processes. The architectural integration of photovoltaic systems is one of the fundamental themes of contemporary architecture to optimize efficiency while taking into account the proportions, morphology and aesthetics of the project. The direct conversion of solar energy into electrical energy using photovoltaic systems appears to be a consolidated technology of exploitation of renewable energy sources. In addition to the availability of the source, its characteristics are its reliability and that it needs low maintenance. In this paper, we present, as a case study, a solar canopy specially designed for the Liv-lib’ project at Solar Decathlon Europe 2014. Canopy's shape was designed to maximize the performance of the solar conversion by integrating in series two innovative solar technologies, Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC) and Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) solar cells. LSC are constituted by slabs of transparent materials (PMMA) doped with a fluorescent dye that captures a fraction of the sun rays passing through the panel. The dye molecules then re-emit light at a longer wavelength inside the slab which, due to the total internal reflection, traps and guides this light toward its edges. Strips of solar cells are optically coupled to the edges and convert into electric energy the light gathered by the slab. Liv-lib’ is a self-sustainable passive house run by University Paris-Est, thanks to the joint work of staff and students from “ENSA Paris-Malaquais”, “ESTP”, “ESIEE Paris”, and “Chimie ParisTech” with academic and industrial partners, among which, for the LSC, the Department of Physics and Earth Sciences of the University of Ferrara.

Passive house design—An efficient solution for residential buildings in Romania

In a temperate climate such as that of Romania, due to the high differences between comfort parameters and temperate environmental conditions, energy is needed in order to achieve a comfortable indoor environment in both winter and summer. Yet, due to the higher initial investment cost, in Romania, the new solutions for highly energy efficient buildings are rarely used. In order to increase the awareness of the investors on the long-term advantages of these solutions, pilot projects are necessary that provide real-time monitoring on the energy performance and behaviour of energy efficient buildings.At the Politehnica University of Timisoara, an experimental programme was developed to demonstrate that applying passive house design principles could be an alternative solution for energy-efficient buildings, reflecting the Romanian local climate conditions, materials, and construction techniques. An energy-efficient house was built following the passive house design principles and was subjected to extensive monitoring. In the design phase, the discussed house is compared to a reference house designed following the energy efficiency requirements in Romania, in order to emphasise the differences in terms of energy demand and life-cycle cost. The life-cycle cost analysis results are dependent on the future growth of energy prices. The study contains the results from the monitoring campaign of the energy efficient house, including the monitoring of the energy consumption as well as of the indoor parameters. The monitoring results indicate that the studied house is meeting the passive house design target of total primary energy requirement of less than 120kWh/m2 year.

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF BUILDING STRUCTURES WITHIN THE SCOPE OF ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND INVESTMENT

The primary objective of this paper is to prove the feasibility of sensitivity analysis with dominant weight method for structure parts of envelope of buildings inclusive of energy; ecological and financial assessments, and determination of different designs for same structural part via multi-criteria assessment with theoretical example designs ancillary.Multi-criteria assessment (MCA) of different structural designs or in other word alternatives aims to find the best available alternative. The application of sensitivity analysis technique in this paper bases on dominant weighting method. In this research, to choose the best thermal insulation design in the case of that more than one projection, simultaneously, criteria of total thickness (T); heat transfer coefficient (U) through the cross section; global warming potential (GWP); acid produce (AP); primary energy content (PEI) non renewable and cost per m2 (C) are investigated for all designs via sensitivity analysis. Three different designs for external wall (over soil) which are convenient with regard to globally suggested energy features for passive house design are investigated through the mentioned six projections. By creating a given set of scenarios; depending upon the importance of each criterion, sensitivity analysis is distributed.As conclusion, uncertainty in the output of model is attributed to different sources in the model input. In this manner, determination of the best available design is achieved. The original outlook and the outlook afterwards the sensitivity analysis are visualized, that enables easily to choose the optimum design within the scope of verified components.

HAMMER & HAND'S CONSTRUCTION METHODS AND APPROACH TO THE GLASSWOOD COMMERCIAL PASSIVE HOUSE RETROFIT

INTRODUCTION As the first commercial Passive House retrofit in the United States, the Glasswood project demonstrates the potential for high performance, low-load buildings to transform the energy efficiency, occupant experience, and marketability of existing commercial spaces, all at an affordable cost. The owners of this historic building set out to create a restaurant on the ground floor and office space on the second floor that would offer super-efficient energy performance and superior comfort while preserving the structure's historic character. Embedded in a walkable, transit-rich neighborhood, the project revolutionized the performance of the building while contributing to the vitality of its urban surroundings. Passive House design and construction was by Hammer & Hand, with architectural design by Scott | Edwards Architecture.

몽골에서의 지열 시스템 적용을 위한 주택 에너지분석

In the capital of Mongolia where the air quality is getting worse due to the coal consumption used for electricity generation and district heating, the application of geothermal systems in the housing sector is recently designed for high class resort. In this study, the case of applying a geothermal system in a house in Mongolia is examined. The effects of passive house design on the needed heat pump capacity, as well as the annual energy consumption are analyzed. Moreover, as the initial costs, except labor fee, are assumed similar to Korea, cost analysis for several cases is examined, too. From the results, if a house is designed according to passive house standard instead of ASHRAE standard, the heat pump capacity can be expected to be reduced from 16 to 5~6 RT. Furthermore, although the initial cost of architectural cost might increased by 29 M\, the total initial cost is reduced by 14 M\, while the annual energy consumption is reduced by 14%. This is mainly driven by the fact that the geothermal system which serves as the main system to cover the building needs, with a high initial cost for fulfilling the peak requirements.

Evaluation of phase change materials for improving thermal comfort in a super-insulated residential building

Abstract The demand for high performance buildings is on the rise. As a result, several new building standards have emerged including the Passive House Standard, a rigorous energy-use standard based on a super-insulated and very tightly sealed building envelope. A common challenge with passive house designs is that they tend to overheat. This study explores the use of phase change materials (PCMs), which store heat as they melt and release heat as the solidify, to reduce the number of overheated hours and improve thermal comfort for a case study passive house duplex located in Portland, Oregon, USA. In this study, a newly constructed passive house duplex was thoroughly instrumented to monitor indoor environmental quality metrics and building energy use. One unit of the duplex was outfitted with 130 kg of PCM while the other unit served as a control. The performance of the PCM was evaluated through analysis of observed data and through additional computer simulation using an EnergyPlus whole-building energy simulation model validated with observed data. The study found that installation of the PCM had a positive effect on thermal comfort, reducing the estimated annual overheated hours from about 400 to 200.

국내 지역기후와 연간 난방에너지요구량의 상관관계 분석 연구 - 패시브하우스 성능 건축물을 중심으로 -

This study emphasizes the correlation between the climate characteristics and annual energy demand in the region where passive houses are constructed, by analyzing the annual heating energy demand according to local climatic conditions for domestic passive houses (E+Green Home) using the PHPP simulation program. 7 regions of Korea were targets of the simulation (Yongin, Paju, Seoul, Andong, Kwangju, Busan, and Tongyoung). The heat energy required declined by about 16.7% when the outdoor temperature rises by an average of <TEX>$1^{\circ}C$</TEX> and the heating load declined <TEX>$1.4W/m^2$</TEX>. This corresponds to about 14% of the maximum heating load, which is <TEX>$1.0W/m^2$</TEX>, that is required by Passive house. Also, as a result of comparing Yongin (<TEX>$16.8kWh/m^2{\cdot}yr$</TEX>) and Tongyoung (<TEX>$3.6kWh/m^2{\cdot}yr$</TEX>), the yearly heat energy required showed about 4.7 times difference. Moreover, to reflect in details about the characteristics of the region climate in the building energy saving design criteria, there is a need to separate the current 3 regions into a minimum of at least more than 7 regions. From the results above, it is found that the local climatic conditions should certainly be taken into account when buildings at a level of passive houses are designed. Besides, since the annual heating energy demand for a passive house varies greatly with the local climate characteristics, the passive house design guidelines for insulation and ventilation performance depending on the region should be presented.

Tomorrow's house: solar housing in 1940s America.

In the years surrounding World War II, solar house heating was seen by many American architects, journal editors, and policymakers as a necessary component of the expansion into suburbia. As the technological and financial aspects of home ownership came to take on broad social implications, design strategies of architectural modernism--including the expansive use of glass, the open plan and façade, and the flexible roof line--were seen as a means to construct suburbs that were responsive to anticipated concerns over materials allocations, over energy-resource scarcity, and over the economic challenges to postwar growth. As this article demonstrates, experiments in passive solar house design were a prominent means for envisioning the suburbs as an opportunity for new kinds of building and new ways of living. The article documents these developments and places them in the context of related efforts to think about the future.

패시브 디자인을 적용한 ICF공법 주택의 난방에너지 성능 분석

The world population is consuming more than 1/3 of the total energy for heating housings. Particularly in our country, 21% of the consumption energy is occupied by building section. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the energy efficiency in buildings, thus promoting a comfortable residential environment while minimizing energy consumption. Accordingly, this study presents considerations for implementing high-insulated and airtight passive houses. This study selected four houses with passive house design applied, performed building energy performance through PHPP2007, a German passive house design simulation program, and compared the building-specific heat loss and heat gain. As a result, the most vulnerable part to heat loss was turned out to be a window and the heat loss was caused by outer wall, roof, and ventilation. Accordingly, for the implementation of passive house, it is necessary to make a careful plan and airtight construction that are complementary to various parts through the energy performance analysis started from the design phase.

Life cycle primary energy use and carbon footprint of wood-frame conventional and passive houses with biomass-based energy supply

In this study the primary energy use and carbon footprint over the life cycle of a wood-frame apartment building designed either conventionally or to the passive house standard are analyzed. Scenarios where the building is heated with electric resistance heaters, bedrock heat pump or cogeneration-based district heat, all with biomass-based energy supply, are compared. The analysis covers all life cycle phases of the buildings, including extraction of raw materials, processing of raw materials into building materials, fabrication and assembly of materials into a ready building, operation and use of the buildings, and the demolition of the buildings and the post-use management of the building materials. The primary energy analysis encompasses the entire energy chains from the extraction of natural resources to the delivered energy services. The carbon footprint accounting includes fossil fuel emissions, cement process reaction emissions, potential avoided fossil fuel emissions due to biomass residues substitution and end-of-life benefit of post-use materials. The results show that the operation of the building accounts for the largest share of life cycle primary energy use. The passive house design reduces the primary energy use and CO2 emission for heating, and the significance of this reduction depends on the type of heating and energy supply systems. The choice of end-use heating system strongly influences the life cycle impacts. A biomass-based system with cogeneration of district heat and electricity gives low primary energy use and low carbon footprint, even with a conventional design. The amount of biomass residues from the wood products chain is large and can be used to substitute fossil fuels. This significantly reduces the net carbon footprint for both the conventional and passive house designs. This study shows the importance of adopting a life cycle perspective involving production, construction, operation, end-of-life, and energy supply when evaluating the primary energy use and climatic impacts of both passive and conventional buildings.

패시브 하우스 디자인 요소를 적용한 농촌지역 단독주거건물의 난방에너지 모니터링 연구

Recently, the field of construction is putting a variety of effort into reducing CO2, since global warming is being accelerated due to climate changes and the increase of greenhouse gas. For reduction of CO2 in the field of construction, it is required to make plans to cut down heating energy of buildings and especially, it is urgently needed to cut down energy of residential buildings in rural area where occupies the majority of consumption of petroleum-based energy sources. Therefore, this research compared and analyzed the actual energy consumption, by evaluating energy performance of a detached house applying passive house design components for reduction of energy. As the result, energy consumption showed remarkable differences, according to the operation of a heat recovery ventilation unit which is one of passive house design components, and building energy consumption displayed remarkable differences, too, depending on the difference of airtightness performance during building energy simulation conducted in process of design. Based on these results, the importance of airtightness performance of passive house was verified. The result of the actual measurement of energy consumption demonstrated that LNG was most economical amongst several heat resources yielded, on the basis of LPG source energy consumption measured within a certain period of time, and it was followed by kerosene. LPG was analyzed to have a low economic efficiency, when used for heating.

A passive–active dynamic insulation system for all climates

Common features of Passive House design are thick walls and air tight construction, to minimise heat loss and infiltration respectively. This is due to the use of thick conventional insulation to achieve the very low U-values required for the Passive House Standard, which adds to the overall cost of construction and also potentially contributes to problems such as interstitial condensation. High performance, exotic insulation materials such as silica aerogels and vacuum insulation products could help to reduce thickness but at a cost that is at present prohibitive. In this paper the author introduces the basic concept and some illustrative simulated performance results of a new Void Space Dynamic Insulation (VSDI) technology that couples low cost conventional insulation materials with efficient ventilation to deliver low loss building envelopes and high indoor air quality in thin wall construction. The advantages of VSDI are that it eliminates the risk of interstitial condensation and the risk of over-heating during extreme summer months. Importantly, VSDI can be used as a 100% passive component, without a fan to drive the air flow.

Passive Solar House Design Strategy in the North-East of China

Proceed with basic passive solar construction parts,analysis and state thermal storage,heating accumulation and consumption process of passive solar energy.Put forward several effective measures to strengthen thermal storage and heating accumulation and reduce thermal loss in the northeast area.Lay the foundation for the green house design in the north-east of China.

Thermal and environmental assessment of a passive building equipped with an earth-to-air heat exchanger in France

In France, where a division by 4 of the greenhouse gases emissions is aimed from 1990 to 2050, technical solutions are studied in order to reduce energy consumption while providing a satisfactory thermal comfort level in buildings. A two-dwelling passive building has been carried out in Formerie (North-West of France), complying the “Passivhaus” standard. This building, not yet monitored, has been modeled using the dynamic simulation software COMFIE, which is dedicated to building eco-design. In order to account for the implemented ventilation system, including a heat recovery unit and an earth-to-air heat exchanger, a specific model has been developed and integrated to COMFIE as a new module. In this article, this model is described first. In order to quantify the benefits brought by a passive design, the simulation results are presented for the passive house and a reference house complying with the French thermal regulation for buildings. The heating load and thermal comfort level of both houses are compared, showing for the passive design a tenfold reduction of the heating load and a clear reduction of summer discomfort. Finally, the environmental assessment – carried out with the life cycle assessment tool EQUER – shows the reduction in primary energy consumption, global warming potential and other impacts brought by the passive house design. Passive house appears to be an adequate solution to improve the environmental performances of buildings in the French context.

A study of passive solar house design

This paper deals with the investigation of the principles of passive solar house design, passive solar systems, and techniques for solar house design. It is expected that the research is to be of momentous significance to the design and construction of passive solar house, and may make contribution to the massive energy-efficient housing construction in our country.