Passive Homes

The German Homes house construction embraces the passive house ideology. With our service cavity wall constructions, our building method leans its way to the passive house system. We can guarantee a highly sealed house envelope because no sockets, switches or other installations are penetrating the outside wall. This results in an very air-tight house. In addition solar heat-gain is achieved through our highly efficient triple glazed windows and maintained by our high quality and temperature-retaining insulation.

The term passive house refers to a specific construction standard for residential buildings with good comfort interior climate conditions during winter and summer, without traditional heating systems and without active cooling. The house heats and cools itself , hence ''passive''. Typically this includes very good insulation levels, very good airtightness of the building, whilst a good indoor air quality is guaranteed by a mechanical ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery.

The criteria of a passive house:

the total energy demand for space heating and cooling is limited to 15 kWh/m2 per year used floor area
the total primary energy consumption for all appliances (household electricity), hot water as well as space heating and cooling is limited to 120 kWh/m2 per year

A passive house has a high level of insulation with minimal thermal bridges, low infiltration and utilizes passive solar gains and heat recovery to accomplish these characteristics. Consequently renewable energy sources can be used to meet the resulting energy demand. With this criteria as a starting point, additional energy requirements may be completely covered using renewable energy sources.

Link to the Passive House Institut of Darmstadt - Dr. Wolfgang Feist: Click here for Link

Download SEI passive house information brochure: download

Download SEI "BER" building energy rating information leaflet: download

For more information on passive homes - contact us: email-form