Thermal bridges: the PSI value
For new builds as well as energy retrofits, worldwide the construction industry is shifting more and more towards zero energy buildings and Passive Houses. With the thermal envelope becoming more and more advanced, the correct evaluation of thermal bridges becomes…
The compactness ratio or Form Factor of a building
When addressing the energy efficiency of a building, one of the most important players in the game is the compactness of its thermal envelope. Is there a way to measure the compactness of a building? Yes: it’s the compactness ratio.
What’s the “time constant” of a building?
Among the many parameters than play a role in the thermal behavior of a building, whether or not it is built to be a Passive House, the time constant is one of the least known ones. Nontheless, this parameter influences…
Meet the Mechanical Ventilation System
With this article, we’d like to cover a topic that is very important for both comfort and energy efficiency of buildings: the ventilation of the house. Unfortunately, this matter is as important as it is unknown to most people.
DesignPH: the SketchUp plug-in to design Passive Houses in 3D
We finally had the chance to test DesignPH, the SketchUp plug-in that allows you to carry out the preliminary design of passive buildings in 3D. Once the model is created, you can export the data to PHPP (the energy balance…
Energy Efficiency: the importance of site supervision
On our Facebook page, we are regularly publishing images from our Cavriago construction site, where we are building two Passive Houses. With this article, we would like to show just two examples of the many construction errors can occur during…
The blackout-proof home: Passive House with high time constant
Last week, our region (Emilia, Italy) was pounded with what locals are calling "The Big Snow". With it came very tangible proof of just how fragile is our infrastructure, particularly our electrical grid. When my husband wrote this article, originally…
The potential benefit of an early ‘Blower Door Test’.
In December we ran a 'Type B' Blower Door Test on our CasaClima Class A project, "Conte Re", under construction near Albinea (in the province of Reggio Emilia, Italy). Many of our colleagues wondered why we decided to run the…
Energy efficiency and barbaric marketing
Over the years, the construction industry has been moving in the direction of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. However in some cases, this change has happened only from a marketing point of view: with this article, we provide you with…
Passive house: new construction or renovation?
In our blog, we are dedicating a large number of articles to deep energy retrofits, on one hand, and Passive Houses on the other. However, these two topics are not necessarily distinct from one another: here, we explain why.
How do you define the “health and comfort” of building occupants?
We often refer to the “health and comfort” of building occupants. What does this mean? An ideal building would be one that you wouldn’t notice or feel, one that would allow the body to exist in a healthy and comfortable…
Mold and condensation problems
Mold and condensation on the interior surfaces of a house's thermal envelope is a self-evident proof of poor quality and lack of comfort. It can happen on walls, roof, slabs and so on. These phenomena are symptoms of degrading building…