Our Wood on Wood in Woods project has received full Passive House certification from the Passivhaus Institute in Germany. This certification ensures that the house will consume less than 15kWh per meter squared per year. In other units this will be about €135/year to keep the house warm 24/7 with the heat pump using mains electricity. But this project has a 3kW photovoltaic solar system integrated into the roof which produces about the same amount of energy the house uses for heating, thereby bring the cost for heating to €0. The fantastic thing about the Passivhaus standard is that it is performance based which means that the standard was developed based on research in real buildings and therefore the estimate for energy use is actually what will be used. Because user comfort and indoor air quality are given huge importance in the design of passive houses, the low energy bills are not a result of reduced ventilation, rather a passive house will ensure excellent ventilation and air quality. The Passivhaus standard is very detailed in its analysis of energy use and in our experience is the only reliable standard to use when designing a new home. This projects demonstrates there really is no excuse for building to passive standard. Most buildings will be around for years to come and upgrading insulation, airtightness and thermal bridging is really hard to do to a finished building, so it makes sense to get it right the first time.

Image of integrated solar panels that produce electricity

The house is registered on the Passivhaus database at https://passivehouse-database.org/index.php?lang=en#d_6359

GreenTec were the builder behind this project, see: https://www.greentec.ie/