What's it really like in passive house?
Today, you are going to find out.
In this first episode, I let passive house speak for itself through the experience of 5 passive house owners from different climate zones around Australia. Most of them are home owners, but my final guest is from a commercial building, because passive house delivers incredible benefits for all building types, not just houses!
In today's episode, my 5 guests explain:
- What made them decide to build a passive house,
- Their concerns before they started,
- What they now love most about their passive house, and
- How it has affected their lifestyle.
The interviews bring to light surprising information and sweep away all misconceptions and scepticism.
One thing to note:
You’ll hear in the interviews that some guests live in Passive Houses, and some live in Passive House style high performance homes. The high performance homes incorporate all the components, testing and outcomes of a Passive House, but have not sought formal certification.
You’ll find out more about the pros and cons of formal certification in Episode 4 with the Passive House consultant and Certifier Luc Plowman from Detail Green
If you’re an Australian Architect you can claim your formal CPD hours for these podcasts.
MORE INFORMATION
Find everything you need on the Renovation Collaborative website.
www.renovationcollaborative.com.au
- PODCAST Key points summary, timestamps and resource links
- FREE RESOURCES Transcript edited into clear Q&A.
- CPD Australian architects can find more information on CPD, and
- COURSES Eleven easy to read courses demystifying the entire home design and construction process.
KEY POINTS SUMMARY
1. Passive House delivers genuine health and comfort benefits. The temperature is always stable and pleasant. It's quiet and calm inside the house. There's no mould and the filtered air keeps dust, dirt and pollen and all other pollutants out of the house.
2. It's low maintenance. Because the windows can stay shut, the dirt and dust build up slower and there are no insects and spiders, so there's a lot less cleaning. The bathrooms can stay dry and fresh and your towels are dry within a few hours.
3. You can still connect with the outside like any typical home. You can open the windows whenever the weather is comfortable outside, or just to hear the birds sing, feel a breeze or talk to the neighbours.
4. Passive Houses require a specialised system to duct filtered outdoor air throughout the house. This is called a HRV or an ERV depending on your climate zone. It's silent and you can't feel it. The air is just trickling out at the ceiling level. You also need some air conditioning to fine tune the temperature to a small degree or for a minimum amount of time. You're not running an air conditioning unit on full for hours at a time.
5. There are substantial energy use and running cost savings. The HRV or ERV energy use is negligible at about 80 watts, so if you had to compare that to something, it's probably like a computer monitor. Savings for a large home are in the thousands of dollars a year.
6. The Australian National Construction Code Energy requirements for houses would have to be some of the lowest in the Westernised world. All my guests could not understand why anyone in the industry could turn their back on the science and evidence of Passive House and continue to build in this outdated way.
If you'd like to see some more information about the houses that we've talked about today and the Bob Marshman commercial building, you can find YouTube video links below.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
00:00:00 Introduction
Residential
00:01:30 GUEST 1. Michael Tolhurst, Envelope Architecture, Canberra - Passive House
00:11:49 GUEST 2. Ben Caine, Leanhaus Architecture, Perth – Passive House / high performance home
00:28:17 GUEST 3. Paul & Regan, Energy Efficient Windows, Brisbane – Passive House/ high performance home (Designed by H4 Living)
00:37:38 GUEST 4. Ralph, Brisbane - Passive House / high performance home (Designed by H4 Living)
Commercial
00:43:06 GUEST 5. Phil Diver CEO, CTC Bob Marshman Building, Brisbane – Passive House
01:10:50 Key Points Summary
IN THE NEXT EPISODE
In the next episode, we'll get into Understanding the Passive House basics.
I'll be focusing on design and you'll learn the key components that make Passive House work so much better than standard construction. I'll be talking to architect Alexander Symes, the director of award winning environmental design practice Alexander Symes Architects in Sydney.
RESOURCE LINKS
Residential Passive House
Guest 1.
Michael Tolhurst, Envelope Architecture, Canberra (His own home) www.envelopearchitecture.com.au
Video about Michael’s home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXI6nKg-hu8
Guest 2.
Ben Caine, Leanhaus Architecture, Perth (His own home) www.leanhaus.com.au
Video about Ben’s home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBdh6F-VLSc
Guest 3.
Paul Gerrard, Energy Efficient Windows, Brisbane www.eewindows.com.au
(Home designed by H4 Living) www.h4living.com.au
Guest 4.
Ralph (Home designed by H4 Living), Brisbane www.h4living.com.au
Commercial Passive House
Guest 5.
Phil Diver CEO, Construction Training Centre, Bob Marshman Building, Brisbane https://ctc.qld.edu.au/bob-marshman/
Passive house consultant: John Moynihan, Ecolateral www.ecolateral.com
Videos about CTC Bob Marshman Building
Living Laboratory Part 1 and Part 2 https://ctc.qld.edu.au/bob-marshman/
GET IN TOUCH
If you've got any comments or questions or there's any topic you'd like to know more about, please send me an email at [email protected].
www.renovationcollaborative.com.au
