The Passive House Standard

The Passive House standard originated from a conversation in May 1988 between Professors Bo Adamson of Lund University, Sweden, and Wolfgang Feist of the Institut für Wohnen und Umwelt.

• The building must be designed to have an annual heating demand as calculated with the Passivhaus Planning Package of not more than 15 kWh/m² per year (4746 btu/ft² 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 (3.79 × 10⁴ btu/ft² per year)

• The building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour. Recommended:

• Further, the specific heat load for the heating source at design temperature is recommended, but not required, to be less than 10 W/m² (3.17 btu/ft² per hour).

On average, however, passive houses are still up to 14% more expensive upfront than conventional buildings.

The temperature changes only very slowly - with ventilation and heating systems switched off, a passive house typically loses less than 0.5 °C (1 °F) per day (in winter), stabilizing at around 15 °C (59 °F) in the central European climate.

Exercise 5. Fill in the gaps in the following sentences with the right words:

1. The roof of a house is shaped like a triangle (noun). The roof is … (adjective).

2. The clock on the wall is shaped like a … . The clock is … . (or The clock is round.)

3. The table in the room is shaped like a rectangle. The table is … .

4. The necklace I wear is shaped like a heart. My necklace is … .

5. The picture on the wall is shaped like a … . The picture is square.

6. The rock in the garden is shaped like an … . The rock is … .

7. The nose on the pumpkin is shaped like a star. The pumpkin's nose is … .

8. The ornament on the tree is shaped like a … . The ornament is diamond-shaped.

9. The stop sign on my street is shaped like an … . The sign is octagonal.

Exercise 6. Match questions with their answers:

1. What is a regular shape?	A. A diamond is not regular because all its angles are not the same.
2. When is a shape a regular shape?	B. A circle is non-polygon. Meaning it has a curved side. A circle has no sides. It is non-regular.
3. Is a diamond a regular shape or a non regular shape?	C. A shape where all the sides are equal and all the angles are equal. If all sides are equal but angles or not, it is equilateral. If it is vice versa, it is equiangular.
4. Is a circle a regular shape or non regular shape?	D. When all its sides and angles are equal.

Exercise 7. To answer the following question match the beginnings of the instructions with their ends: