Glossary Passive House

Passive House or PassivHaus (German) refers to the voluntary standard for energy use in buildings. It results in very low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. The PassivHaus standard requires that the building fulfills the following requirements:

• The building must not need more heating energy than 15 kWh/m² per year
• With the building de-pressurised to 50 Pa (N/m²) below atmospheric pressure by a blower door, the building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour (n50 ? 0.6 / hour).
• Total primary energy consumption (primary energy for heating, hot water and electricity) must not be more than 120 kWh/m² per year