Empowering the construction industry to build for the future through education & standardized Passive systems. #RunWildBuildPassive
About ten days ago, we took part to the 20th International Passive House Conference in Darmstadt, Germany. Now at its 20th edition, this passive house-focused event brings together researchers, designers, experts and manufacturers from all around the world.
The construction system certification is possibly the least known certification offered by the Passivhaus Institut, and yet it can help spreading passive buildings all over the world. We worked on the first system certification for passive houses in a warm climate: we try and explain what it's all about.
At the 2015 International Passive House Conference in Leipzig, Germany, the Passivhaus Institut presented version 9 of PHPP, which includes many new features to design passive buildings. Many articles have been written about the new primary energy method and the certification classes. In our mind, however, PHPP 9 has more important new features: we explain what they are.
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.
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 software for passive house design), to further the energy design in depth. Even though this plug-in has been available on the market for a couple of years, since version 8.5 of PHPP, our recent meetings with passive house professionals tell us that this tool is not yet very widespread. It is the case of Italy, as well as the impression we got from our recent trip to the USA.
A couple of weeks ago we went to Leipzig, Germany, to take part in the 19th International Passivhaus Conference, organized by the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt. With approximately one thousand people attending from all over the world, this event marks the gathering of some of the AEC sector's greatest experts on energy efficiency. The following are our impressions from the event...
