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Retrofit with Passive House components

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Abstract

The Passive House is a performance-based efficiency standard for new buildings. The factors that lead to very low heating and cooling demands include compact shape, favourable orientation and size of windows, good insulation, optimised thermal bridges, high-performance glazing, insulated window frames, airtightness, mechanical ventilation with heat or energy recovery, cool colours and solar control. Many of these components can also be used in retrofits of existing buildings, although Passive House levels of energy efficiency are often hard to achieve in renovation. EnerPHit is a voluntary standard for high-efficiency retrofits that is based on the use of typical Passive House components. It pursues economic efficiency and simultaneously addresses thermal comfort, indoor air quality, climate protection and hygrothermal performance. This paper is the first fully comprehensive publication of the foundations upon which the EnerPHit criteria were developed. Furthermore, we present five EnerPHit example buildings, including energy consumption data, costs and solutions for the challenges that arose in the practical implementation: a multifamily residence in Frankfurt, Germany, two row houses in Hereford, the UK and New York, USA, a school in Innsbruck, Austria, and a high-rise in Gothenburg, Sweden. Where measured performance data are available, they confirm very low energy consumptions of the refurbishments. The corresponding investments can be profitable.

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Notes

  1. Another improved window frame which is not commercially available yet was assumed with vacuum and quadruple glazing for Type I: Uf = 0.45 W/(m2K), frame width 70 mm, extra costs € 50/m2.

  2. HRV, heat recovery ventilation, i.e. a ventilation unit that is able to transfer heat from the stale exhaust air to the incoming outdoor air.

    ERV: Energy recovery ventilation. In addition to heat, also humidity from the exhaust air is transferred to the incoming air.

  3. This takes into account that using an improved solar protection glazing is always less expensive than additional exterior shading and there are no disadvantages of lower solar heat gains in hot climates.

  4. Currently, the 4 low-e glazing type is hardly used because it is still more expensive than it would be for mass production, as assumed in Table 2.

  5. Water activity (aw value) of a building material is very suitable as a criterion for the likelihood of mould growth (Sedlbauer, 2001). The aw value is defined by the equilibrium relative humidity in a sealed air space within the material. In such a space, the free water contained in the solid determines the relative humidity of the air. With an aw value below 80%, the likelihood of mould growth is very low, even on contaminated old plaster.

  6. Uniform temperature of an imaginary space in which a person would exchange the same amount of heat through radiation and convection as in the existing non-uniform surrounding.

  7. Whilst the increase in the heating demand in the heating period is irrelevant, at least in buildings with appropriate insulation of the external envelope.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Passive House Institute, Rheinstraße 44/46, 64283, Darmstadt, Germany

    Zeno Bastian, Jürgen Schnieders & Berthold Kaufmann

  2. Baxt Ingui Architects, 20 Vesey Street, Suite 900, New York, NY, 10007, USA

    William Conner

  3. Passive House Institute – Innsbruck office, Anichstraße 29/54, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Laszlo Lepp

  4. Göteborgs Universitet, Gulhedsgatan 5A, 41530, Göteborg, Sweden

    Zack Norwood

  5. Simmonds Mills Architects, 57 Portfield Street, Hereford, HR1 2SE, England

    Andrew Simmonds

  6. Passivhusbyrån Ingo Theoboldt, Vasared 301, 523 94, Tvärred, Sweden

    Ingo Theoboldt

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  1. Zeno Bastian
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Bastian, Z., Schnieders, J., Conner, W. et al. Retrofit with Passive House components. Energy Efficiency 15, 10 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-021-10008-7

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