Sunday, February 23, 2014

Passive House

Hey all,
Since I recently attended an amazing lecture on Passive House Design by Stuart Fix (Professional Engineer, certified Passive house Designer) I'll explain our house in terms of its passive house design features, as this principle of building is what our home is based off of.
But first, you are probably wondering what "passive house design" is!  In a nutshell, passive house design focuses on creating a superbly insulated, airtight home which takes advantage of solar gains.
Amazingly, this concept had its foundations in Saskatchewan way back in 1977.  The Saskatchewan Conservation House was built in Regina by the Saskatchewan Research Council (Pictured below).
This house featured incredibly thick insulation (R40 in walls and R60 in ceiling- the same as our house) and triple glaze windows facing south with shutters angled to block sun in the summer and was very airtight.  It had one of the first ever heat recovery ventilation (HRV) systems.  When a building is airtight, it's like living in an insulated ziploc bag- good in the sense that hot air can't escape the bag, but you'd get sick building syndrome if you tried to stay there because there would be no air exchange!   HRV systems essentially exchange air in the home with the outside air in a controlled setting and recover the air's heat that would normally be lost if air was just leaking out of the home.  Although this home saw some success, the ideas laid out did not catch on in North America.  Part of this was due to the fact that building code did not require it (and the build philosophy has always been to build to the minimum standard) and partly it was due to the fact that this home required new expertise to build.  Lastly, with the oil crisis of the 1970s being largely behind them, it once again became cheap to run a house and efficiency fell by the way side.  If you'd like to read more about this click here:

The Saskatchewan Conservation House: the birthplace of Passivhaus | News | Ecohome
http://www.passivehouse.ca/first-passive-houses-2/

Flash forward 20 years to the 1990s, when a man by the name of Dr. Wolfgang Feist in Germany developed the Passivhaus Standard. This is a set of requirements on space heating of the home, overall home energy requirements, air tightness and home comfort.  These requirements are again all attained by making an airtight, superbly insulated home which takes advantage of passive solar gain.  The European Union passed a resolution calling on all members to adopt the Passive House Standard by 2016.  This is affecting how Europe builds homes.  These standards are a great ideal to strive for, however they were based off what could be attained in Europe.  Our frigidly cold climate on the prairies means that achieving these standards is much more difficult and expensive than in Europe.  In Canada, we have 2 institutes- www.passivehouse.ca, which is for purist folk who abide by the rules set to the German standard, and www.passivebuildings.ca, which is for the pragmatic house builder.  This is where our house comes in.  Ronn at Vereco homes has designed houses which are incredibly energy efficient and affordable.  Nearly all the sustainable technology (except our radiant floors and future solar panels) will pay itself off in a few years.  This includes the extra thick insulation, getting a builder to build it so that its airtight, the HRV system, the upgraded glazed windows and the drain heat recovery system).  He has done extensive research and graphed out what will pay off.  This approach is great for the average Joe in that the technology/design can be attainable to all.  This is why I feel that it applies to anyone making modifications to homes or building new homes.  I will go into the different ways to measure a house's efficiency in the next post (think LEED, R-2000, Energuide, Passivhaus, etc!).  For now, here's a look at some up-to-date construction photos : )

The front of our house faces West and features triple glazed "Zone D" windows which will actually contribute to the homes' efficiency rather than be a weak point.

The South side of our home features angled shading which blocks sun in the summer and allows sun in in the winter when the sun is lower in the sky.  Note that 9/16 windows are south facing in order to get maximal solar gain.  We have 25ft of lot on the South side next to the home in order to ensure light reaches the home.

The front of the house as it currently stands! Solar panels will eventually go on the angle roof awnings.

View of the house from the back.





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