what is passivhaus?
it's a low energy standard

PassivHaus is a voluntary building standard developed in Germany and now commonly used all over northern Europe. There are six main rules to building a PassivHaus. These rules ensure the building has very low energy and heating requirements, 90% lower than an average house.

  • Super Insulation - ensuring excellent heat retention within the building
  • Excellent draught proofing - the house has so few gaps and holes that almost no air can enter the building other than through the carefully controlled heat recovery ventilation system
  • Passive solar gain - carefully placed windows mean the sun will warm the building naturally
  • Ventilation with heat recovery - this allows you to capture all the heat usually lost from uncontrolled air leakage
  • Low energy appliances - the most energy efficient appliances can dramatically help you reduce your energy consumption
  • Renewable energy sources - using solar PV and thermal, wind or other renewable sources allows you to be even more energy independent

Visit our ecohome blog to find out more about one of our passivhaus retrofits.

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Manufacturing a solar panel consumes more energy than it will ever deliver.

Truth: Electricity generation plants are measured... read more

Manufacturing a solar panel consumes more energy than it will ever deliver.

Truth: Electricity generation plants are measured by the energy yield ratio which is the energy delivered by a system over its lifetime, compared to the energy required to make it. In northern Europe a grid-connected system, with a lifetime of 20 years, produces 4 times the energy required to make (it has an energy yield ratio of 4). In sunnier climes this figure goes up to 7.