Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Long-term performance of Passive House buildings

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Energy Efficiency Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Long-term experience with Passive House buildings is illustrated with two early large-scale projects, a school and an office building located in Germany. Those were monitored in lump energy performance (school, commissioned 2004) and great detail (office, commissioned 2002), respectively. Moreover, they give an indication of the characteristics of such buildings subject to changes in usage intensity. Both buildings generally performed as expected with the school facing occasional overheating in the summer due to inflexible shading controls. Following an extension in schooling hours, the addition of a canteen was required and the ventilation system was adapted to the changed usage. Nevertheless, the building’s user comfort and energy performance remain high, despite exceeding the Passive House primary energy target slightly due to increased electricity consumption. The office likewise meets the calculated efficiency in operation. The ground-coupled cooling worked well despite greatly increased internal heat gains due to unexpected usage. This extra heat input did not, however, exhaust the geothermal (passive) cooling capacity for the future. Thermal comfort proved near optimal at all times, despite a very simple control regime of the one-circuit concrete core activation system for heating and cooling. In the last section, airtightness design and measurement experience in the UK and, particularly, the question of long-term stability of the airtight building envelope are assessed. It was found that measurement results are not only repeatable in relatively short intervals such as a few months. The data available suggests stability of the airtight envelope over many years. Attention is required as regards the leakage of party walls of terraced buildings which need to be integrated in the overall airtightness concept. A high permeability of party walls in terraced buildings with a common airtight envelope presents a challenge for measuring airtightness. Long-term series of airtightness measurements exist for the Kranichstein House in Darmstadt, Germany, and prove the stability of the chosen airtightness concept. Moreover, results for 17 early Passive House buildings in Germany in eight locations and various construction types revisited in 2001 (1.4 to 10 years after the initial airtightness test) suggest stability of airtightness values over time. Great advances have since been made in materials and methods available and the general understanding in the industry. This is supported by a large sample of 2934 Passive House projects of varied construction materials, locations, sizes, and usages that yielded an average airtightness test result as low as n50 = 0.41 h−1.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • ATTMA Technical Standard L1. (2010). Measuring the air permeability of building envelopes (dwellings). Air Tightness Testing & Measurement Assoc, 2010, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • BS EN 13829: Thermal performance of buildings – determination of air permeability of buildings – fan pressurization method, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elmroth, A., & Logdberg, A. (1980). Well insulated airtight buildings, energy consumption, indoor climate, ventilation and air infiltration. In Proceedings of the 8th CIB Congress, June 1980, Oslo, Norway (pp. 23–27).

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, M., & Johnston, D. (2014). TSB BPE Project 450070 – Gentoo, Sunderland. In TSB BPE Phase 2 Final Report: In-use performance and post occupancy evaluation, A report to the technology strategy board as part of the technology strategy board’s building performance evaluation programme (p. 2014). Leeds: Centre for the Built Environment (CeBE), Leeds Metropolitan University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feist, W. (2005). Hochwärmegedämmte Dachkonstruktionen, Arbeitskreis kostengünstige Passivhäuser, Phase III, Protokollband Nr. 29, Passive House Institute, Darmstadt, 2005.

  • Jack, R. (2013). Building diagnostics: practical measurement of the fabric thermal performance of house. PhD Thesis. Loughborough: Loughborough University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jack, R., Loveday, D., Allinson, D., & Lomas, K. (2017). First evidence for the reliability of co-housing tests. Building Research and Information, 46(4), 383–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, D.: In-use monitoring and post occupancy evaluation study – Sunderland, Pressurisation Test Report, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, D., & Fletcher, M. (2013). TSB BPE phase 1 final report: a report to the technology strategy board as part of the technology strategy board’s building performance evaluation programme. In TSB BPE Project 450014 – Gentoo Passivhaus Development (p. 2013). Leeds: Centre for the Built Environment (CeBE), Leeds Metropolitan University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, D., Miles-Shenton, D., Wingfield, J., & Farmer, D. (2012). Post construction and early occupation study. Pressurisation Test Report.

  • Johnston, D., Farmer, D., Brooke-Peat, M., & Miles-Shenton, D. (2014). Bridging the domestic building fabric performance gap. Building Research and Information, 44, 147–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2014.979093 Published online version on 03 Dec 2014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, D., Miles-Shenton, D., & Farmer, D. (2015). Quantifying the domestic building fabric ‘performance gap’. Building Services Engineering Research & Technology (BSER&T)., 36(5), 614–627. https://doi.org/10.1177/014362441557034.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahlert, C., Kirtschig, T. e.a.: Innovative Gebäudekühlung in einem Bürogebäude im Passivhaus-Standard, Ebök, Tübingen 2004

  • Outhwaite, B. (2011). Air test reports, Plot 3, Plot 7, Plot 9 (Final Test). Racecourse Estate Phase, 1.

  • Peper, S.; Feist, W.: Energy efficiency of the Passive House Standard: expectations confirmed by measurements in practice, Report 2015, http://passivehouse.com/05_service/03_literature/0303_energy_efficiency/0303_energy-efficiency_of_passive_houses.htm, retrieved 6.6.2018

  • Peper, S; Kah, O.;Feist, W.: Zur Dauerhaftigkeit von Luftdichtheits-konzepten bei Passivhäusern, Feldmessungen, Final Report IEA SHC TASK 28 / ECBCS ANNEX 38, Darmstadt, 2005, http://passiv.de/downloads/05_luftdichtheit.pdf, retrieved 5.6.2018

  • STW. (2006). Lindemann, G., Obert, P.: Passivhaus ENERGON Ulm Bürogebäude im Passivhaus-Standard Schlussbericht Monitoring, Steinbeis- Transferzentrum Energietechnik, Ulm, 2006.

  • STW. (2014). Presentation by G. Lindemann and G. Mengedoht (Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Energietechnik Ulm), VIII Jornada De La Divulgación De Las Energías Renovables Y Eficiencia Energética, Ourense, Spain, 2014.

  • Siddall, M.: Thermal bypass: the impact upon performance of natural and forced convection, Proceedings of the 13th International Passive House Conference, Darmstadt, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddall, M.; Trinick, J.; Johnston, D.: Testing the real heat loss of a Passivhaus building: can the UK’s energy performance gap be bridged? Proceedings of the 17th International Passive House Conference, Darmstadt, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Siddall, M.; Johnston, D.; Fletcher, M.: Occupant satisfaction in UK Passivhaus dwellings, Proceedings of the 18th International Passive House Conference, Darmstadt, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vallentin, G. (2006). Projektbeispiel: Passivhausschule in Aufkirchen. In Arbeitskreis kostengünstige Passivhäuser, Protokollband Nr. 33: Passivhaus-Schulen [Research Group Cost-efficient Passive Houses, Volume 33: Passive House schools] (p. 223). Darmstadt: Passive House Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, P. R., & Webb, B. C. (1980). Ventilation measurements in housing. In Proceedings of the CIBS Symposium on Natural Ventilation by Design. December, 1980, London, CIBS (pp. 22–34).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wrobel, S.: PH Standard bei Nichtwohngebäuden-Kostenanalyse am Beispiel von Schulen (master’s thesis), Lübeck, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wolfgang Hasper.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hasper, W., Kirtschig, T., Siddall, M. et al. Long-term performance of Passive House buildings. Energy Efficiency 14, 5 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09913-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09913-0

Keywords

Navigation