Passive House Building

There is a growing push from home buyers and builders to have homes that are more energy-efficient and are built in a more green way. One term used in this is the passive house builder, Melbourne and elsewhere. With fossil fuels being a limited resource and in some cases not good for the planet to extract people need to do more to reduce their energy consumption for today and for a better future.

What is a passive house?

Also known as a Passivhaus in Europe, a passive house is a building that uses certain technologies to meet very specific standards in terms of energy efficiency. Those standards are so tight that these homes can reduce their energy consumption by as much as 90% in some cases! There is no odd building design trick, the homes look beautiful and they are comfortable normal homes to live in! With passive house builders Victoria or elsewhere this is not just filling green checkpoints. It is all about making the home energy-efficient and constructing the home in an energy-efficient way.

Comparing green homes to passive homes

In green construction, you have a mix of using sustainable and thoughtful materials, modern technologies and cutting-edge methodologies. They will draw on accredited knowledge, reclaim and reuse materials, consider local options and try to work out a strategy for the build that minimizes its impact on the environment. These are all important things to consider. But with a passive house builder Melbourne located, they focus too on what might be the most important issue with sustainable construction. How to make sure the ongoing carbon footprint of the property is kept as low as possible. 50 years from now that house will still be low energy saving its new owner money and doing its part for the planet.

Seven principles of passive home building

With a passive house, you can keep energy losses at an absolute minimum while also maximising passive gains in energy. 7 principles are a part of this process;

1. Removing thermal bridges that traditional houses suffer from that then allow cool and hot air to move through the walls in and out
2. Making sure the house is super-insulated, walls, floors, roof with the best there is
3. Making sure the doors and windows used in the build are high-performance ones
4. Using computer modelling to model energy losses and gains and learn from that
5. Ensure that the building envelope is as airtight as possible
6. Make they get the most out of passive solar gains and internal heat
7. Using heat and energy recovery ventilation in the home

Conclusion

When you get experienced passive house builders Victoria or where you are you could be seeing something like heating your home with just one heater 1000W, which is saying you can heat your house with your hairdryer on high! The appliances, the lights, people in the home generating heat and the sun all do part of that job. As well as saving a lot of money over your years of energy bills in heating and cooling you are vastly reducing the carbon footprint of you and your home.