The challenge for us is how we can adapt our everyday lives to our climate-changed future. So, the best way to mitigate the effect of urban islands is to change the design of the buildings.
We need a building energy efficient, comfortable, affordable and ecological at the same time. Here is the passive house (Passivhaus in German). The term Passive house refers to a rigorous, voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint. So the passive house are ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.
The Passivhaus standard requires that the building fulfills the following requirements.
- The building must be designed to have an annual heating and cooling demand as calculated with the Passivhaus Planning Package of not more than 15 kWh/m2 per year in heating or cooling energy or be designed with a peak heat load of 10 W/m2.
- Total primary energy (source energy for electricity, etc.) consumption (primary energy for heating, hot water and electricity) must not be more than 120 kWh/m2 per year.
- The building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour (n50 ≤ 0.6 / hour) at 50 Pa (0.0073 psi) as tested by a blower door.
Passive Houses allow for heating and
cooling related energy savings of up to 90% compared with typical
building stock and over 75% compared with average new builds. In terms
of heating oil, Passive Houses use less than 1.5 litres per square meter
of living space per year – far less than typical low-energy buildings.
They are also praised for their high level of comfort. They use energy sources inside the building such as the body heat from the residents or solar heat entering the building – making heating a lot easier. The use of appropriate windows with good
insulation and a building shell consisting of good insulated exterior
walls, also the roof and floor slab keep the heat during winter in the house –
and keep it out during summer.
A ventilation system consistently
supplies fresh air making for superior air quality without causing any
unpleasant draughts. This is e.g. a guarantee for low Radon levels and
improves the health conditions. A highly efficient heat recovery unit
allows for the heat contained in the exhaust air to be re-used.
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