The term passive house refers to a rigorous voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. Passive design is not an attachment or supplement to architectural design, but a design process that is integrated with architectural design.
The Passive house standard requires that the building fulfills the following requirements:
- The building must be designed to have an annual heating and cooling demand as calculated with the Passive House Planning Package of not more than 15 kWh/m² per year in heating and 15 kWh/m² per year cooling energy OR to be designed with a peak heat load of 10W/m².
- Total primary energy (source energy for electricity and etc.) consumption (primary energy for heating, hot water and electricity) must not be more than 120 kWh/m² per year.
- The building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour (n50 ≤ 0.6 / hour) at 50 Pa (N/m²) as tested by a blower door.
