There’s not a day without thinking about building a passive house. The number of benefits from having a passive house (PH) is just the key and the answer to a shitload of problems, like global warming. It’s available right now.
The principle is simple: best insulation possible so that you don’t need classic heating system because machines and humans are enough to heat a superinsulated room. Also, trying to get the maximum out of the sun with big and wide exposure to the south.
Get the point?
Numbers? Well Wikipedia says it all:
- This is between 75 and 95% less energy for space heating and cooling than current new buildings that meet today’s US energy efficiency codes. The Passivhaus in the German-language camp of Waldsee, Minnesota uses 85% less energy than a house built to Minnesota building codes.[25]
- In the United Kingdom, an average new house built to the Passive House standard would use 77% less energy for space heating, compared to the Building Regulations.[26]
- In Ireland, it is calculated that a typical house built to the Passive House standard instead of the 2002 Building Regulations would consume 85% less energy for space heating and cut space-heating related carbon emissions by 94%.
When you think that the majority of carbon emissions come from housing more than anything else, you understand how much this PH is important to the world.
We just need to be effing efficient and Planet Earth will be fine.
More at ArchDaily. (photos by Paul Ott)
Anyway, the important thing in PH is insulation. Insulation is complex and you must think “wait, it costs a lot and it’s full of chemical stuff so PH being 100% clean, my ass”
You are wrong. Introducing to you the best insulation product ever. It’s 100% natural. It grows anywhere with no need of pesticides or fertilizers. After a natural treatment (mixed with lime), it doesn’t burn, nor can be eat by animals or bugs. Oh, and it’s water-resistant of course. Did I say that it was also an excellent acoustic protection?
It’s call HEMP. Which is illegal in the US of course, it would destroy so many businesses. Also, Monsanto doesn’t have the patent on that shit and never will so they’d rather ban it. US people, time to wake up.
That being said, what are the benefits of the PH in terms of Quality of Life? They are numerous:
- Inside temperature is homogeneous; it is impossible to have single rooms (e.g. the sleeping rooms) at a different temperature from the rest of the house.
- Since there are no radiators, there is more space on the rooms’ walls.
- The air is fresh, and very clean.
- A 100€/year of heating bill, even with bad ass winter is totally achievable.
- You need a third of the time you need to build a classic house. It’s 66% faster to live in the house you are building if you want: a PH for 4 people can be build in 4 months.
- Construction cost used to be around 14% more expensive upfront than conventional buildings but in Germany the cost is already equivalent. And if you’re aiming for a lot of wood instead of cement and choose hemp insulation over the conventional polyurethane and chemical ones, it gets dirt cheap (Paris price is around 7 000€/m² when you can build a PH for less than 2 000/m²).
The bad things:
- It doesn’t work well in a tropical climate.
- The house becomes a system. Therefore you need to tweak it from time to time (having plants so the air doesn’t get too dry, verifying ventilation systems and make them efficient all along the year, etc).
- Because you need to minimize the number of surface exposed to the outside, PH are by design meant to be as square and tight as possible. The more the house is spread out, the harder it gets to regulate heat/cool.
Do. Want.
I didn’t know what to aim for if I was thinking building a home. Now I do.