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The Passive House or Passivhaus is a home built to a specific standard to obtain a net zero carbon result which is better for the environment while saving energy costs. But there is more to the ethos of the Passivhaus than this. It’s also about creating a healthier home, with less air pollution and no heat loss through the building fabric (known as thermal bridging) which reduces energy costs as well as external noise. The design and build are governed by a set of requirements under a single heading known as the Passivhaus Standard. The Passivhaus Standard covers five distinct areas relating to the building and energy consumption of a property. These areas are airtightness, waterproofing, ventilation, heating /cooling and electrical loads. Here is a quick guide to some of the requirements of a Passivhaus brought to you by EKCO, one of Scotland’s leading home improvement companies.
Building your own home usually starts with deciding on the location and the direction your home will face to get the best views. A plan is then drawn up by an architect, who commissions the most suitable builder, and the project goes from there.
Alternatively, you can contact a builder directly who specialises in Passivhaus projects, and they will commission the most suitable architect for the job. Whichever way you choose everything that is involved in the build of your new home should be decided at the outset based on the end result rather than just adding to it throughout the project to tick the right boxes. If you stick to this advice you won’t run into issues later.
There is no strict policy governing the choice of fabric for your Passivhaus (known as the system choice) as long as the construction can achieve the overall Passivhaus Standard. Generally speaking however, the system choice is split into two categories – heavyweight (such as masonry and concrete) and lightweight (such as timber and steel). It is entirely your decision which one you choose which is often based on the cost and availability of the building material.
One of the key requirements of a Passivehaus is how airtight the property is. A proper ‘air barrier strategy’ should be planned right at the start during the design phase and shouldn’t be left to chance until testing is done later in the project. Air can be lost in various ways with some of the most obvious being beneath windowsills, through windows and doors and beneath door thresholds.
As windows and doors can be a key factor in whether your home is airtight or not, choosing the right ones is essential in achieving the Passivhaus Standard. EKCO can supply, or supply and install, a wide range of timber, aluminium and aluminium-clad windows which are suitable for Passivhaus projects requiring low U-Values and triple glazing.
We source our windows from some of Europe’s leading window manufacturers including Origin, Internorm and Norwood. We also supply a range of aluclad doors and windows plus Spitfire aluminium doors too through our sister company Wolf Line.
Origin aluminium windows contain a thermal break (a non-metal insulating layer) within the frame to ensure there is no heat transfer from the inside to the outside. Origin windows are also available with Aerogel gas insulation injected between the panes. Aerogel was first produced to provide insulation for spacesuits to ensure astronauts were kept warm while on missions.
If you prefer the natural beauty of wood, you can choose from our wide range of windows using timber sourced from sustainable forests and certified by the FSC. Timber windows are naturally warm with low heat conductivity and are the perfect choice when building your Passivhaus exclusively from wood. Norwood also supplies a range of aluminium-clad (aluclad) timber windows for added strength and durability if your home is to be sited in a colder part of the country with more extreme weather.
The ventilation in a Passivhaus comes from a unit known as an MVHR which stands for Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery. The MVHR unit provides your home with fresh air and removes dust and other airborne particles while retaining the energy that has been used in heating the building. This means it can take the stale air from the kitchen or bathroom and recycle it into air to be used in the living areas. It also helps to maintain an even temperature throughout the home and eliminate any cold spots
Your Passivhaus will need some form of heating which is an integral part of the Passivhaus Standard, but as one of the principles is to reduce energy consumption, the amount of heating you will need is small compared to conventional homes. This means you don’t have to go to a great expense to achieve the type of heating you will need. One option is to choose an air source heat pump. Another, more traditional choice, is to install solar panels which convert solar radiation into heat, although this is gradually being overtaken by solar photovoltaic heating (PV) which converts sunlight into electricity and is now cheaper to obtain than it was before. In fact, the Passivhaus Institut is moving towards including PV in Passivhaus certification.
If you plan to build your own Passivhaus or if you’re a builder specialising in Passive Houses, contact EKCO to find out more about how our energy efficient doors and windows can help you achieve your goal. Visit our showroom at Uphall, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, or call us on 01506 857 007.
54 West Main Street, Uphall, West Lothian, EH52 5DW ‘Parking available’
Mon - Fri 8:30am - 4:30pm, Sat 9:30am - 4:30pm, Sun: Closed
