What are the PassivHaus, EnerPHit and AECB Silver Standards?

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1 What are the PassivHaus, EnerPHit and AECB Silver Standards? Tips, architectural principles and insights on building new homes and communities in Northern England

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3 Forward Congratulations and welcome to the custom Passivhaus community! By reading this guide the chances are that you are willing to take responsibility for a building or refurbishing a home to a low energy standard. You may own a building plot, or are contemplating buying one. Low energy buildings offer a great opportunity to make your mark and addresses the demands of modern day living. Why have a I written this guide? Whilst a growing number of people are aware of the Passivhaus, EnerPHit and AECB Silver standards there remain many who do not. This booklet outlines these low energy standards in a none technical manner. I trust that once you have read this document you will be able to feel more confident that you are on the right path towards achieving a satisfying and appropriate home. All the best! Mark Siddall Founder - LEAP: a Lovingly Engineered Architectural Process info@leapt4.it mail: 3 Toll house Road Durham DH1 web

4 Table of Contents Introduction... 5 What is the PassivHaus Standard?... 6 What is a PassivHaus?... 6 How does it work?... 7 What are the effects?... 7 Why do we want to build to the PassivHaus standard?... 7 Why PassivHaus Certification?... 8 EnerPHit... 8 What is the AECB Silver Standard?... 9 Where to go from here: Help us to help you About the author... 12

5 Introduction What is often not recognised in these statements is the background to the Passivhaus, EnerPHit and AECB Silver standards. Supporting their headline energy requirements are a number of other less widely appreciated requirements that serve to deliver thermal comfort and energy performance all via a carefully structured quality assurance system. For more information please refer Claiming the Passivhaus Standard: The UK context by the Passivhaus Trust.

6 What is the PassivHaus Standard? In case you don t yet know the PassivHaus Standard is the world s leading energy efficiency standard and it can be applied to all manner of building typologies including homes, offices, schools, care homes etc. Recently it has emerged that some people tend to think that the PassivHaus Standard is a number or perhaps a series of energy performance parameters. The basic, well publicised, performance requirements that tend to be recited include: An annual energy consumption for space heating of 15 kwh/m²/yr A primary energy requirement of less than 120 kwh/m²/yr (best practice being less than 70 kwh/m²/yr) An air leakage of less than 0.6 when tested in accordance with EN Perhaps they are also aware that the risk of overheating should be 10% (with best practice being less than 5 %.) The PassivHaus quality standard was finally developed in 1996 after an experimental project was built and monitored in Since this time PassivHaus has arguably been the worlds leading energy performance standard. By 2012 more than 30,000 buildings PassivHaus certified or declared. What is a PassivHaus? A building designed and built to achieve the PassivHaus standard is kept warm passively by the sun, by internal heat sources and by recovering heat from ventilation. Compared with conventional buildings a PassivHaus needs 80-90% less heating energy. If you were to convert the annual energy consumption into fuel oil then you could say that a PassivHaus uses less than 1.5 litres per square meter floor space. This sensational saving is achieved by the basic principle of minimising heat losses and exploiting free heat gains and optimizing the design.

7 How does it work? A well insulated building will have 30-40cm of insulation and triple glazed windows that serve to keep the warmth within the building. For fresh air ventilation with heat recovery is provided. In the winter this helps to maximise comfort by avoiding the cold drafts that occur opening windows. More than 80% of the heat losses from ventilation are recovered with this technology. Filters in the ventilation system allow pollen-free and dust free air within the home helping to reduce the risk of allergies and asthma. On very cold winter days, when necessary, the supply air from the comfort ventilation can be warmed up. The high performance windows minimise heat losses from persons and household appliances and exploit heat gains from the sun. What are the effects? With excellent insulation all rooms and surfaces are evenly warm which creates a high standard of comfort. Conventionally windows, and trickle vents, are often closed to exclude noise and during the winter they get closed to avoid cold drafts; this often results in indoor air with a high level of humidity (ideal for mould growth) and poor air quality (odours, pollutants etc.) By providing constant fresh air ventilation with heat recovery these problems are mitigated. The environmental benefit of a PassivHaus building is that, by vastly reducing the need for heating, less carbon emissions are also made. There has been a great deal of European research examining the economics of the concepts that underpin PassivHaus and it has been concluded, time and again, that this level of energy conservation pays for itself over the life cycle. Why do we want to build to the PassivHaus standard? The proven track record of the Passivhaus standard demonstrates superior performance and gives us confidence in what we are doing.

8 It makes good economic sense. Furthermore, against the background of rising global warming, caused by to high CO2-emissions in the industrialized countries, we believe that all citizens of every country have the responsibility to protect the atmosphere by minimising possible contributions. If everyone becomes conscious that the reducing energy consumption can lead to a lowering of the CO2, and other atmospheric emissions, then they can contribute to the protection of the atmosphere. Nearly 50% of CO2 emissions result from buildings and nearly 50% of these emissions are associated with heating, thus it is arguably critical that as architects, LEAP seek to do their part to engage in minimising and where possible addressing the environmental threat. For this reason LEAP seeks to design buildings that reduce heating energy to just 10% of the average building. Other energy efficiency measures can also be employed to minimise the emissions associated with hot water and electrical use, often reducing energy use and carbon emissions by 50-90%. Why PassivHaus Certification? Providing the quality assurance standards are met Passivhaus building do not have to be certified. Certification is therefore a mark demonstrating that these standards have been met. The performance requirements are very stringent and establish targets for space heating (<15 kwh/m2) and total energy use (<120 kwh/m2). For buildings that satisfy the performance requirements LEAP can assist in obtaining certification from the WARM, PassivHausUK, CoCreate, or indeed the PassivHaus Institute themselves. EnerPHit The EnerPHit standard was more recently developed by the Passivhaus Institut as a means of providing quality assured low energy refurbishment. In this case the energy performance design targets have been modified to reflect the challenged imposed by existing buildings. The energy requirement of a house retrofitted to the EnerPHit Standard

9 is: Annual space heating requirement of 25 kwh/(m2a) treated floor area; The upper limit for total primary energy demand for space and water heating, ventilation, electricity for fans and pumps, household appliances, and lighting not exceeding 120 kwh/(m2a), regardless of energy source; and The frequency of Excessive internal temperature (> 25 C) should be limited to 10 % recommended 5 % Additionally, the air-leakage test results must not exceed 1.0 air changes per hour (ac/hr) using 50 Pascal over-pressurisation and under-pressurisation testing. What is the AECB Silver Standard? Finally there is the AECB Silver standard. As you may expect the standard utilises the same quality assurance standards as those of the Passivhaus standard though energy performance requirement is less stringent. In this case greater onous is also placed upon the professionalism of the designer and contractor as third party certification and site inspections are not required (this reduces the cost of certification.

10 Where to go from here: Decide you are ready to proceed. BRIEFING: Gather all of your ideas and aspirations into a scrapbook and create a detailed list of all activities that you do, or want to do, whilst at home or in your garden (washing, cooking, eating, playing, socialising, storage of clean and dirts items, mobility issues etc.). You could consider using the headings of this guide to help lend structure your thoughts (please add additional sections if you feel that you need to.) FINANCE: Examine your budget and determine what you can realistically afford. Where relevant ensure that you have adequate funding in place before you are ready to proceed. TIMESCALE: Develop a clear understanding of the timescale. LOCATION: Consider where you would like to live and begin to reconcile this with your budget. (Do not buy a plot at this stage.) Begin to separate your 'nice to haves' and your 'must haves' You are now in a position to call Mark for an initial briefing session. This meeting will achieve three outcomes: a) It will add structure to your ideas and aspirations b) It will assess the practicality and feasibility of your proposals c) It will provide a ball-park cost for your initial ideas

11 Help us to help you As you can see we are not just architects. We are also the leading provider of educational tools and 'how to guides' for people building and renovating in the North of England. To help us provide even better tools and resources I would be grateful if you please complete a short survey. Your questions will help us understand the range of new resources that we need to create. (PLUS we will answer any specific question you submit.) Have your three biggest questions been addressed? Yes / No Which three questions remain to be addressed? Please send your to: info@leapt4.it Thank you Mark

12 About the author Who is Mark Siddall? Mark Siddall is Northern England's most accomplished award winning architect, Certified Passivhaus Designer, low energy consultant and author. He read architecture at Newcastle University and liked the North East so much that he made it his home. Building upon over fifteen years of architectural experience, further enhanced by a seven years of specialised research and delivery of low energy/ low carbon design, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of that helped to introduce Passivhaus to the UK. Issues of affordability, usability and practicality inform his approach and have increasingly led to an appreciation of the need for an integrated, consensus based, design process. Mark has worked with a wide range of organisations from custom self-builders through to national corporations and public bodies. He has also worked across many sectors to help them make the most of their architectural goals and sustainability agendas. In addition to conventional architectural services his practice provides design consultancy, energy analysis, project enabling and training for clients, design teams and constructors. He is a regular speaker and presenter at both the national and international conferences. Mark also chairs the North East regional chapter of the Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB). Mark is also acts as a technical advisor for the PassivHaus Trust, a senior lecturer at Northumbria University and a tutor on the Masters in Urban Design (MAUD) at Newcastle University. Founded upon his interest, curiosity and passion for making low energy buildings and places he established LEAP (Low Energy Architectural Practice) in Mark's pursuit of elegant, evidence based design excellence leaves no stone unturned. He

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