4/30/2024 0 Comments Passive house designThermal image from Nuremberg, Germany, showing heat escaping through the facade of a standard building in the background while the passive house in the foreground maintains a more consistent temperature. (Think of wearing a warm coat without any gloves on a frigid winter day, Bayer said: Your hands are thermal bridges letting body heat escape.) Passive house buildings feature thicker-than-normal insulation, energy-efficient windows, and a continuous membrane that prevents thermal bridges - spots on the facade where energy can leak through. It can also be used on both new and existing buildings, as well as in any climate. Heat your home with a hair dryerĭespite the name, passive house design can be used for any building type, from hospitals and schools to high-rises. “We can be sure when we build to passive house standards that we’re going to get 40 to 60% less energy use per square foot than what we traditionally have for code,” she said. The standard is a natural fit for the government’s building efficiency push, said Beverly Craig, a program director at the state-run Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. In recent years, Massachusetts has become a leader in promoting passive house design. Reducing the amount of energy needed to maintain comfortable temperatures, keep the lights on, and provide other critical services is vital to meeting governments’ climate goals. “Passive house is the most reliable, cost-effective, and healthiest way to reach superb energy performance in architecture,” said Sara Bayer, the director of sustainability at New York City design firm Magnusson Architecture and Planning.īuildings are a major source of planet-warming emissions. ![]() In passive house buildings, an airtight facade prevents unwanted flows of energy between the interior and exterior - a marked break with typical structures that let heat in during the summer and leak it out during the winter. ![]() That’s the promise of a passive house, a design standard that’s becoming increasingly popular in the architecture community for its benefits to occupants and the climate. Imagine a home so efficient that it could be heated with a hair dryer.
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