Passive houses

Passive houses are buildings with a high level ease-of-use and very low energy consumption. Passive houses are among the first buildings with very high energy efficiency in history. The development of this concept was triggered by scenarios, which were developed in 1980s, and which revealed that national energy management models will only prove to be sustainable if energy efficiency will be improved significally. The first passive house was build in 1991 in Germany, in Darmstadt.

Passive houses are buildings…

… which heating demand is 15 kWh or less per square meter of useful floor area per year.

… … which heating, warm water and the whole household’s electricity consumption as primary energy value is totally 120 kWh or less per square meter of useful floor area per year.

… which air permeability in the building envelope, measured by 50 Pa pressure difference, is 0.6 1/h (times per hour) or less.