What is PassivHaus? | Energy Efficiency + Comfort

About Our Design Methodology

What is a Passive House?

Originating in Germany, ‘PassivHaus’ is an evolving performance-based standard for measuring the energy efficiency of a building. The core aims are to maximise energy efficiency, indoor comfort, and occupant health and well being. Economic returns on your investment are also realised through guaranteed higher quality build practices, meaning your home will have a higher resale value should you decide to sell down the track.

Passive House Brisbane follows 5 principles including thermal insulation, insulated glazing, airtightness and ventilation. This leads to a minimised demand for heating and cooling and significantly reduced energy consumption across the whole building.

Given Australia’s climate is relatively mild compared to many other countries, it tends to be comparatively simpler to achieve PassivHaus Certification, using similar construction to mainstream housing.

Benefits

Passive House Design Benefits

Sustainability

Passive house design is based on an ethos of eco-friendly principles. These are applied from the design stage through construction so that your home provides you with ongoing cost savings and sustainable living for many years to come.

Affordability

While the design and construction of your passive house will cost more than a standard home, you benefit from ongoing cost savings. Decreased energy consumption, lower cooling costs and cleaner air provide for a much more affordable lifestyle than a traditional build.

Versatility

Passive House Brisbane building designers can retrofit a passive house design to any home. We can renovate traditional Queenslanders to PassivHaus Certification, providing homeowners with an improved standard of living, where efficiency enhances comfort.

Certified Performance

Quality build, attention to detail and your PassivHaus Certification provides peace of mind. The building will last longer, require less ongoing maintenance and use far less energy (as little as 1/10th). Your home will produce less greenhouse gas emissions, and provide the healthiest indoor air.

Health Benefits

The airtight building envelope and high quality mechanical ventilation systems result in total control over what enters the home. Dust, pollen, mould, chemicals, smoke, and maybe in the future viruses, can all be filtered out. A passive house will never feel stuffy and the CO2 levels will be well below that of standard homes.

Higher Resale Value

Eco-friendly and sustainable homes maintain their value due to the higher quality construction standards. Passive homes provide an added advantage in that the home's performance is documented and certified. There is no guesswork. Your house is designed and built based on science!

Passive Houses In Australia

Benefits of PassivHaus

Let's Have A Look At What You Can Expect

Home Owners

Benefits Include:

Healthier Homes & Healthier Living
Acoustic Separation Provides Quieter Living
More Resilient & Comfortable Lifestyle
Affordable To Run
Easy To Operate
Highest Construction Standards
Higher Future Resale Value
Possiblity To Access Clean Energy Home Loans At Reduced Rates

Builders

Benefits Include:

Don’t just be a cookie-cutter builder. Working with the PassivHaus Standard you know your build’s future performance is backed by science and guaranteed to perform.

Designers

Benefits Include:

Benefits of PassivHaus

Let's Have A Look At What You Can Expect

Home Owners

Benefits Include

Healthier Homes & Healthier Living
Acoustic Separation Provides Quieter Living
More Resilient & Comfortable Lifestyle
Affordable To Run
Easy To Operate
Highest Construction Standards
Higher Future Resale Value
Possiblity To Access Clean Energy Home Loans At Reduced Rates

Builders

Benefits Include

Don’t just be a cookie-cutter builder. Working with the PassivHaus Standard you know your build’s future performance is backed by science and guaranteed to perform.

Designers

Benefits Include

Dispelling the myths

Common Misconceptions

Passive Design is where an extra level of detail is added to ensure your home provides a liveable, sustainable and comfortable space for you and your family for many years to come. Creative and receptive, we are not afraid to push the boundaries of what is possible in sustainable design.

I don't want to live in an ugly box.

A properly designed PassivHaus can be whatever you want it to be, any shape, any configuration, and it can look however you want it to look.

The Passive House Planning Package software will verify what is needed for your project. You can then make choices about the design to reflect your budget, needs, and aesthetic preferences.

I want to open the windows.

You can and must be able to open the windows and doors when the conditions are right. What the standard gives you is a choice.

On hot or humid days, you can choose to close it up and it will continue to breathe with the ventilation system. Even with the air conditioning on, air will never get stale.

They are not suited to warm climates like Brisbane.

A passive house has a very high performance envelope (walls, floors and roofs) to reduce the transfer of cold air or heat into or out of the building. Think of an esky, which works equally as well to keep beer cold as it does to keep the casserole or soup warm.

The thermal dynamic is the same in warm or cool climates. Because it works both ways, Passive house design is perfect for warm climates like Brisbane.

Passive House Design applies only to new houses.

The PassivHaus Standard is universal, and works on ALL types of buildings, not just houses.

There is also an EnerPHIT standard that can be applied to older buildings and refurbished buildings of any type.

And you can choose the level of compliance as well. So passive house design can be used for Renovations too.

It will be too stuffy.

In a passive house, the ventilation system delivers temperature corrected, filtered, fresh air to every part of every room, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

A passive house will never feel stuffy as your built-in ventilation system prevents this from happening. The CO2 levels will always be well below what you would expect to find in any normal ventilated home.

I dont't like change.

As climate change happens around us, building higher performance buildings will become normal, and even expected.

The PassivHaus Standard calculates the future needs of the house and allows for changes in environment. Passive houses are more future proof and will offer higher resale values.

Passive House Association

The Australian Passive House Association have some fantastic resources for download and sharing, refer to the link below for more information, and if you have any questions, please feel free to call us.

passivehouseaustralia.org/