Passive House is a voluntary international building method with high standards for energy efficiency reducing its ecological footprint. Developed by Passive House Institute (PHI) in Darmstadt, Germany. It results in an highly energy efficient and exceedingly low energy building that requires little (at times no energy) for space heating and cooling.
Passive house methodology make use of building orientation, massing, insulation, heat recovery, passive use of solar energy, insulated window frames, elimination of thermal bridges, and incidental internal heat sources. For the renovation of existing buildings PHI developed a similar if slightly more lenient performance standard.
The resulting performance represents a roughly 90% reduction in heating and cooling energy usage and up to a 75% reduction in primary energy usage from existing building stock – meant to aggressively meet the climate crisis carbon reduction imperative while making a comfortable, healthy and affordable built environment.
