- Airtightness – This is essential! An air tight building envelope will ensure limited gaps and cracks and thus give you full control over the internal environment and thermal comfort.
- Thermal Insulation – Sufficient insulation is a must! This provides enough thermal separation between the heated or cooled inside environment and the outdoor temperatures. Thermal comfort is improved and condensation reduced.
- Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery – Efficient heat recovery ventilation is key! This unit manages air flow and temperature by effectively extracting stale room temperature air and introducing fresh, filtered air from outdoors. AS the air travels through a heat exchange element the fresh air coming in replacing the extracted air is close to the same temperature as the extracted air. This results in improved air quality, maintaining air temperature, and preventing condensation and mould.
- Passive House (High Performance) Windows – Insulation is key for windows too! Using low-e glazings filled with argon or krypton prevents heat transfer whilst size and placement allows solar radiation in during winter and reduces it in summer.
- Thermal Bridge Reduction – Thermal bridges must be avoided! All edges, corners, connections and penetrations must be planned and executed with great care so that thermal bridges can be avoided. Otherwise your wonderfully insulated building will have thermal highways that will reduce the efficiency of energy consumption, condensation suppression and thermal comfort.
Benefits of building a Passive House
The main aim of Passive House is to increase a buildings energy efficiency and reduce the ecological footprint it creates whist at the same time creating a healthier and cleaner living space for you. Passive House benefits include:
Healthier – Great indoor air quality; reduced pollen and dust.
More Comfortable – Unprecedented thermal balance with no hot or cold spots; designed to maintain a steady temperature of around 22ºC.
Energy Savings – Save money on heating and cooling costs.
Quiet – Insulation, sealing and high performance windows limit external noise.
Environmental – Less energy consumption; fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Easy to operate – No complicated control system.
When you choose to build a Passive House, you’re choosing a better lifestyle for you, your family, and the planet.
The team at Red Cedar Constructions specialise in making great homes exceptional and that’s exactly what a Passive home is. Why not contact us about Passive House options for your new home? Call us on 1300 CEDAR (that’s 1300 023 327). Learn more about our Thornleigh Passive House project.
