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Summary CIV1240H Building Performance Assessment
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[Type here] [Type here] [Type here]EnerPHit/Passive House1
A passive house is a progressive construction concept that differentiates energy-saving buildings.
The "passive house" concept originally came from Germany in 1990 and became widely adapted
worldwide from North America to Asia-pacific. There are roughly 30,000 passive houses in
Europe, and 1,600 are certified passive houses. Passive house criteria can help
retrofitted buildings to achieve extensive improvements such as energy-saving, occupant
comfort, and envelope integrity. Research has proved that Passive House allows around 80%
heating and cooling-related energy savings without sacrificing occupant's comfort. The heating
demand of the passive house is about 15 kWh/square meter/year (assumed to heat to 20 degrees
Celsius continually) for the new developments compared with the typical buildings between 100-
300 kWh/square meter/year. However, it would not be feasible for every existing building to
reach the same energy performance as a newly constructed building due to various difficulties
such as window ratio, orientation, etc.
To measure such energy savings in future building renovation, In 2010, the Passive House
Institute(PHI) developed an energy modelling standard called EnerPHit for building renovation.
EnerPHit consists of three levels of classification, which are Classic(occupant comfort with low
energy), Plus(qualified energy performance with renewable energy) and Premium(zero-carbon
emission). The certified buildings each significantly reduced greenhouse footprint and optimized
energy costs during the operation and maintenance phase. The certification program covers a
variety of refurbished facilities, including residential, educational, and administrative buildings.
The certification process has several components. EnerPHit certified houses need to be sealed by
accredited certifiers listed on the PHI's website. This encourages owners and architects to contact
the certifiers during the planning stage because mistakes can then be easily avoided with minimal
cost. Additionally, energy modelling documents with quantitative data need to be submitted
before the construction starts. Eventually, the certifier will conduct the final review to ensure
consistency of the plan in the commissioning phase.
The certified process only needs to fit one of the EnerPHit criteria: building components or
energy demand. This paper will focus primarily on the building component method, which
includes five essential measurements for the passive houses, including windows, insulation,
airtightness, ventilation, and thermal bridge reduced design. Four indicators can measure the
average characteristic values of each element. The first and second must comply with Table 1 as
prerequisites, and the third and fourth indicators must be evaluated independently before moving
to Table 2. Firstly, the product's specification (window and insulation) should provide its U-
value and g-value, and the application package should include all relevant documents as proof.
Secondly, the ventilation flow rate from the Passive House Certificate product can be directly
inputted for the Passive House Planning Package, and non-certified ventilation units should be
applied with a safety factor with the certifier's clarification. Thirdly, the airtightness level must
be less than one air change per hour at 50 Pa and confirmed by a Blower-Door-Test on the
construction and commission stage. This indicator is interchangeable with envelope heat loss,
energy-saving and thermal comfort. Furthermore, the thermal bridge coefficient (value)
needs to be verified by the detailed calculation following EN ISO 10211. If the owner chooses
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