Passivhaus

The Passivhaus standard is an excellent performance benchmark for providing energy-efficient, comfortable, and operationally sustainable residential and non-residential buildings, offering substantial energy cost savings and potential health and well-being benefits for occupants. Developed in Germany, it is quickly becoming a mainstream standard for many public bodies procuring new buildings en-route towards meeting their future climate obligations. 

Essentially it is about building tight and ventilating right and it can be used to design any building type. The Passivhaus standard looks to ensure consistent high quality thermal, indoor air, and acoustic comfort levels. The stringent technical requirements are largely achieved though maximising thermal insulation, ensuring excellent air tightness of the building envelope and providing good quality mechanical ventilation systems with inbuilt heat recovery to recycle energy. 

Delivering a Passivhaus building is a rigorous process and requires buy-in from designers, suppliers and contractors from the outset to ensure that an excellent build quality is achieved. It sets stringent standards for a building’s performance which must be attained to guarantee certification.

Key benefits of Passivhaus;

• Whole building approach to sustainability 
• Energy efficient  
• Reduced carbon emissions in heating and cooling 
• Lower energy bills
• High level of occupant comfort
• Healthy indoor air quality
• Air-tight buildings
• High standard of construction
• Measured and certified building performance

Passivhaus consultancy

Ingleton Wood’s certified Passivhaus designers are integral members of our architectural discipline and are able to assist you from initial concept design through to completion and assessment of your project.

Passivhaus services Ingleton Wood offers;

• Design - full passivhaus architectural design by certified designers, utilising the passivhaus planning package software (phpp)
• Consultancy - specialist advice on specifying building mechanical systems and renewable technologies 
• Enerphit – architectural design to the Passivhaus retrofit standard for existing buildings
• Passivhaus Plus - specialist design and specification advice to achieve buildings certified to Passivhaus Plus, where buildings both dramatically reduce energy use and produce as much energy as occupants consumes. The energy generated must come from renewable sources and provide enough energy to operate the building throughout the whole year.