.:: The Passive-On Project ::.

Passive-On is a completed research and dissemination project which was funded within the Intelligent Energy for Europe SAVE programme. The project worked to promote Passive Houses and the Passivhaus Standard in warm climates.

Background

The last ten years has seen increasing interest in North and Central Europe in the Passivhaus construction standard, particularly in Germany. Homes built to the Passivhaus standard are buildings which provide a comfortable indoor climate in winter without the need for a conventional heating system.

To permit this, it is essential that the building's space heat load does not exceed 10 W/m² living area in order to be able to use a simple air preheater. Simulations and measurements have shown that for the typical German climate such a design leads to an annual demand for space heating of 15 kWh/(m²a).

Passive Houses therefore require roughly 85% less energy for heating than a house built to existing German building regulations. The total primary energy demand, including household electricity, is limited to 120 kWh/(m²a).

Objectives of Passive-On

The Passive-On project examined how to take the Passive House concept forward, especially in Southern Europe. In these regions the problem of household energy use is one not only one of providing warm houses in winter but also, and in some cases more importantly, of providing cool houses in summer. The Passive-On project has lead to three major outcomes:

- For architects and building designers (particularly small studios) the project has developed Design Guidelines and enhanced the PHPP Software Design Tool for developing cost effective all season Passive Houses in both heating load and cooling load climates.

- For Policy makers the project has provided a set of Policy Proposals, examining the barriers and the solutions which EU, national and local governments can adopt to promote the more wide scale development of Passive Houses.

- More generally, Passive-On has sought to disseminate the concept of Passive Houses and the PassivHaus standard in partner countries.