23 Aug 2011

Passivhaus positive!




“A Passivhaus is a building, for which thermal comfort can be achieved solely by post-heating or post-cooling of the fresh air mass, which is required to achieve sufficient indoor air quality conditions – without the need for additional recirculation of air.”

...meaning the heating requirement in a Passivhaus is reduced to the point where a traditional heating system is no longer considered essential. Cooling is also minimised by the same principles and through the use of shading and in some cases via the pre-cooling of the supply air. Night purging and the use of natural cross-ventilation through open windows is encouraged during the summer months.




This sounded interesting, wish they would build affordable housing for rent, we used to have council housing, we need to grow it back, housing has become a speculative commodity with the hyper-rich living in castles and young people struggling to find somewhere to live.


Nonetheless this sounds positive.




UK's largest Passivhaus development to be built

20 August 2011
The London Borough of Camden is to become the home of the UK's largest development of Passivhaus residential properties.

Passivhaus is a German standard for energy efficiency in construction and is increasingly being used across the world.

Energy saving features of the 53 homes to be built in the borough will include extensive levels of insulation and high levels of air tightness.

"As the need to create ever more energy efficient housing to mitigate against the rise in fuel prices becomes more critical, so will the use of systems like Passivhaus become more common as the standard to deliver affordable energy housing," explained John Frankiewicz, chief executive of Willmott Dixon Capital Works, which has been contracted to build the homes.

"Camden is making a very imaginative and exciting statement on delivering low carbon housing that others will be watching closely."

The development forms part of the borough's Community Investment Programme to build new energy efficient social housing for tenants.


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