Passive House Construction: The 5 Key Criteria
Running time: 8 mins
Kim Feldborg explains the five key construction criteria which are required to be met when building a passive house.
Passive House Criteria - Putting it simply
The Passive houses are designed to retain more heat over time.
This means that less energy is needed to maintain temperature - much like
your thermos flask.
Valhalla Living's focussed design and detailing, together with its experience
and understanding of passive house principles, means that we can build you
a new passive house which uses little or no heating whilst providing a
beautifully comfortable living experience all year round. As a result, you will be the owner of a home which will save you a fortune in energy bills.
In traditional New Zealand houses, a substantial proportion of the space heating is needed to replace heat energy that has been lost through the
walls, floor and roof. By comparison, the temperature loss through the thermal envelope of a passive house is minimal and the combination of passive heating and heat recovery ventilation provides almost all of the warmth in the house.
Certification of passive house status is granted after strict criteria have been met. Five fundamental construction requirements, together with proven test results, are used to acheive this.
The five key construction criteria are:
Thermal bridge free construction
Insulation
Airtightness
Advanced window technology
Heat recovery ventilation