What are passive houses and how do they work?

Your home says a lot about who you are and your priorities. If you want passive houses a better world! an architectural trend is being promoted for the design and construction of buildings that reduce the environmental impact. Have you heard about passive houses ? We tell you more…

What are passive houses?
The construction sector is responsible for 30-40% of global energy consumption and also emits 20-30% of greenhouse gas emissions ! according to the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction. For this reason! research is being carried out to offer more sustainable projects.

Passive houses were created with this aim in mind ! a new phone number list building model inspired by the principles of energy efficiency to achieve an energy balance close to zero. The objective of these so-called bio-houses is to reduce the demand for energy consumption! so that savings on the energy bill of up to 90% can be achieved compared to conventional houses! and never less than 70%.

We are therefore faced with a different construction model! one with high energy efficiency that is making its way in Spain.

How and where did passive houses emerge?

Already in the 1970s ! the American Edward Mazria proposed in his book Passive Solar Energy Book ! an architectural model that included renewable energies and took advantage of climatic conditions to consume less energy.

At the same time! the US Department of Energy published a document dividing instead of images where you the country into 16 climate types and presenting design measures to address the natural adaptation of buildings. The concept was clear: adapt construction to the climatic characteristics of each territory.

However! it was not until the late 1980s that the concept of Passivhaus! or passive houses in German! was first introduced in 1988 by Bo Adamson (a building researcher and professor at Lund University) and Wolfgang Feist (a building physicist and professor at the Institute for Housing and Environment of the State of Hesse ) .

“The building’s heat losses are reduced

Such an extent that ar numbers it hardly needs heating. Passive heat sources such as the sun! human occupants! household appliances and heat from the extract air cover a large part of the heating demand. The remaining heat can be provided by the supply air if the maximum heating load is less than 10 W per square metre of living space. If this warm air supply is sufficient as the sole heat source! we call the building a Passivhaus.”
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Feist
Director of the Passivhaus Institut! Darmstadt! Germany

Feist also founded the Passivhaus Institut! the regulatory body for the passivhaus standard! and in 1990 the first passivhaus was built in Darmstadt (Germany)! which! incidentally! was his own.