Passive House Plus

Issue 49 of Passive House Plus is currently at the printers, but it's available online now for subscribers. Just log in at https://lnkd.in/ey29rB3g A few sneak peeks Storm breaker How cold does an all electric passive house get in a week long winter power cut, with no heat source? Sustainable building product pioneer Niall Crosson found out, when the record-breaking winds of Storm Éowyn came knocking on the door of his bio-based passive house. Big picture Mike Eliason, architect, founder of Larch Lab and author of the must-read Building for People, reflects on how a series of personal and global crises – from pandemic lockdowns and climate disasters to urban housing challenges – shaped his mission to bring sustainable, community-focused, and climate-adaptive neighbourhoods to North America. Derelict to dream home A couple breathes new life into a set of historic barns while minimising upfront carbon costs, creating an architectural delight of an Enerphit in the Gloucestershire countryside. Flat earth What do you do when a building type is inefficient, common, hard to treat – and often used to house vulnerable people? Chris Morgan of leading passive house architects John Gilbert Architects tells the story of an extraordinary pilot project that may show the way to solve the stickiest of problems. Material matters In recent years, the drive to reduce the embodied carbon of buildings has led to a resurgent interest in timber and other biobased building materials. But peering into the future, if we are to think not just about carbon but also land, water, and regenerating nature, how might we build to meet our essential needs, and what might we build with? This issue also sees our erstwhile columnist Peter Rickaby reflecting on an extraordinary career in energy efficiency and sustainability, while Toby Cambray consider the potential catastrophic impacts from AMOC shutdown may cause for our buildings, Dr Marc O'Riain reflects on the NZEB targets, and Ele Goerge makes the case for industrialisation to level up the retrofit market. You can subscribe to Passive House Plus from as little as €15, see https://lnkd.in/eT7Z-CmP for more!

Just what the doctor ordered Stirling passive house blitzes RIBA 2030 targets What do you get when a clinician couple decide to build their dream family home? In the skilled hands of leading Scottish architects Paper Igloo, you get a forensically detailed, highly ecological, cosy home that wraps up low embodied carbon and passive house into a beautiful design. https://lnkd.in/eeaNg6uM

The Thursday long read - Passive towers protect vulnerable Bronx seniors How do you serve the needs of senior citizens who have fallen on hard times in the Big Apple? In Betances Residence, CookFox Architects have cooked up an extraordinary response, integrating the protective benefits of passive house with beautifully considered, user-tailored design. https://lnkd.in/ep9S3Yan

Designing a passive house is one thing. Designing a scheme of passive houses to make the most of the views on an extraordinary coastal site is another. And designing that scheme to tie into the local supply chains and architectural vernacular – while ensuring the homes are set up for changing, potentially disengaged occupants – is the stuff of magic. For our long read this week, John Hearne writes on a Connemara #passivehouse scheme that brings the Atlantic in. https://lnkd.in/eFPMi4jw

People rate thermal comfort and energy efficiency as the most important feature of a green home. The issue currently ranks 1st out of 14 characteristics in the Smarter Finance for EU Green Homes Essentials survey, with a whopping 91.3% of respondents voting thermal comfort and energy efficiency as essential. There are, however, some signs of regional variation in this. 94% of respondents in both Ireland and the UK picked the issue as essential, compared to 80% of respondents from continental Europe. The two-minute survey is still live, so please click here to have your say in essential market research on attitudes to green homes, to help us all work out how to market green homes better, and in the process help the EU Life-funded Smarter Finance for EU consortium in its quest to unlock €100 billion worth of verified green homes across Europe. The results suggest that people place the highest value on the aspects of green homes that may offer the most obvious, tangible benefits for their lives: a warm, comfortable home, with low energy bills. https://lnkd.in/eByi4YWs The SMARTER4EU project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Clean Energy Transition Programme under grant agreement no. 101121060. #SMARTER4EU #SMARTERfinance #LIFEproject #LIFEprogramme #LIFEAmplifier #EnergyTransition #CleanEnergyEU #CINEA #SustainableFinanceEU #GreenFinance #ClimateFinance #GreenHomes

Clean indoor air is an essential benefit of green homes – and the vast majority of people agree. The issue narrowly missed out on top spot in the Smarter Finance for EU Green Homes Essentials survey, ranking 2nd out of 14 green home characteristics. 84.2% of respondents so far see good indoor air quality as an essential green homes feature, while 13.1% say it’s important. As indoor air quality expert Ian Mawditt explains, achieving good indoor air quality requires two things: source control and dilution. Source control is about stopping pollutants from entering the building in the first place. Dilution is about using effective ventilation to remove any pollutants that do occur before they accumulate to dangerous levels. There’s an art (and science) to this - which also means ensuring the ventilation strategy used doesn’t create discomfort for residents, to ensure they don’t turn off fans or block vents. Source control can mean: Avoiding the use of materials which offgas harmful pollutants, in particular from interior finishes, but also potentially from the building fabric itself. Avoiding combustion devices in homes where possible. As the research of Dr Ben Jones has shown, pollutants such as PM2.5 are the most harmful indoor pollutants of all, by an order of magnitude. Common sources of PM2.5 in the home include solid fuel burned in fireplaces and stoves, and gas hobs in kitchens. Designing buildings to prevent the risk of mould growth, for instance by building airtight, well insulated, well ventilated homes with no thermal bridges, using build-ups which allow vapour to diffuse through building fabric rather than get stuck and condense. filtering outdoor air before it enters the home, via the likes of a heat recovery ventilation  system. Not all outdoor air is fresh air, be it due to traffic pollution, industrial or agricultural pollution, or the increasingly serious threats posed by wild fires. Educating building users about the need to avoid using toxic cleaning products or a source that can be surprisingly insidious: air fresheners. The two-minute survey is still live, so please click here to have your say in essential market research on attitudes to green homes, to help us all work out how to market green homes better, and in the process help the EU Life-funded Smarter Finance for EU consortium in its quest to unlock €100 billion worth of verified green homes across Europe. https://lnkd.in/eByi4YWs The SMARTER4EU project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Clean Energy Transition Programme under grant agreement no. 101121060. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. #SMARTER4EU #SMARTERfinance #LIFEproject #LIFEprogramme #LIFEAmplifier #EnergyTransition #CleanEnergyEU #CINEA

The Thursday long read Norfolk straw-bale cottage aims for passive In 2017, Lenny Antonelli spoke to architect Fran Bradshaw of Anne Thorne Architects, who designed and built a straw-bale home for herself in Hickling, Norfolk — and aimed to meet the passive house standard while doing so, with only a single infrared electric panel as the building’s sole active heat source. https://lnkd.in/ebAWx_xG

The third most important characteristic of a green home is their role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. That’s according to the 68.9% of respondents so far to the Smarter Finance for EU Green Homes Essentials survey who see cutting emissions emissions as essential, while 26.2% say it’s important. Robust green home certification systems cut emissions in a multitude of ways. They do so by reducing the energy demand to heat, cool, ventilate and power our homes, and by meeting that demand with renewable energy systems. They do so by using low embodied carbon building materials. And they do so by enabling people to ditch the car and get about on foot, bicycle or public transport. Low greenhouse emissions ranks 3rd out of 14 green homes characteristics in our survey. The two-minute survey is still live, so please click here to have your say in essential market research on attitudes to green homes, to help us all work out how to market green homes better, and in the process help the EU Life-funded Smarter Finance for EU consortium in its quest to unlock €100 billion worth of verified green homes across Europe. https://lnkd.in/eByi4YWs The SMARTER4EU project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Clean Energy Transition Programme under grant agreement no. 101121060. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. #SMARTER4EU #SMARTERfinance #LIFEproject #LIFEprogramme #LIFEAmplifier #EnergyTransition #CleanEnergyEU #CINEA #SustainableFinanceEU #GreenFinance #ClimateFinance #GreenHomes

Our homes are staring down the barrel of an increasingly explosive climate. Over 2/3rds of people get this, saying climate resilience is key for green homes. It’s not enough to just cut emissions. The climate is changing, and our homes must be built to handle what it throws at us. That means more extreme weather, including torrential rain, wind, heatwaves and cold snaps. Climate resilience ranks 4th out of 14 characteristics in the Smarter Finance for EU Green Homes Essentials countdown. 67.8% of respondents so far say climate resilience is an essential feature of a green home, with a further 26.8% saying it’s important. The two-minute survey is still live, so please click here to have your say in essential market research on attitudes to green homes, to help us all work out how to market green homes better, and in the process help the EU Life-funded Smarter Finance for EU consortium in its quest to unlock €100 billion worth of verified green homes across Europe. https://lnkd.in/eByi4YWs The SMARTER4EU project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Clean Energy Transition Programme under grant agreement no. 101121060. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Natural light ranks 5th in our top 14 Green Homes Essentials countdown. 61.2% of responses so far have marked daylight as an essential feature of a green home, with a further 35.5% saying it’s important. Having the right amount of  natural light indoors isn’t just about cutting down on lighting bills: it’s about your  health and well-being. You can have too much of a good thing though. Overcooking  glazing ratios can bring problems, ranging from glare, to excessive heat loss in winter, to overheating  in summer, to increases in embodied carbon. The two-minute survey is still live, so please click here to have your say in essential market research on attitudes to green homes, to help us all work out how to market green homes better, and in the process help the EU Life-funded Smarter Finance for EU consortium in its quest to unlock €100 billion worth of verified green homes across Europe. https://lnkd.in/eByi4YWs The SMARTER4EU project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Clean Energy Transition Programme under grant agreement no. 101121060. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.