Passive House Explained in 90 Seconds

I'm a Passive House enthusiast. I'm involved in this great movement to create highly energy efficient buildings that use 80 to 90% less energy. But how? People ask me all the time, so this is the low down in 90 seconds.

[yaxixi]

It's amazing you raised the topic 11 years ago!

[yousis]

I’m building a passive house in Canada, it’s always difficult to explain it to the folks who live in our cold climate and are not familiar with the passive house concept that there’s no “heating “ or “air conditioning” in the house. This hopefully makes it easier! Thank you for posting it.
P.S: German Technology IS the best!

[yvonnehiemstra]

We are moving into our passive house in Kingston Ontario next month and I couldn't be more excited. It looks and performs spectacularly!! We achieved a .57 ACH blower door test and it is so cozy inside even in a Canadian winter. I use this video to explain to my friends exactly what it is as they often hear about net zero but not much about passive. Passive makes net zero a lot easier to accomplish.

[batiannolte]

One further step that could be taken in an urban setting is to provide these houses with Solar panels for electricity and Solar thermal for central heating and water heating. Interconnecting neighbouring buildings to set up a peer-to-peer system where they are able to exchange and redistribute power where necessary. Ideally they would produce a surplus of energy which then could be fed into a big grid where the transport sector could be supported.

[stephent]

This is a really great video and I've shown it to a lot of people!
I do have a criticism which is that a Certified Passive House in a cool/cold climate will most probably require some heating to remain above the Certification temperature threshold of 20 degrees Celcius in the middle of winter. However it will not need a full central heating system as would be required in other "typical" buildings in that climate. The permissible heating load for a Certified Passive House in ANY climate zone is 10W/m2 of the Treated Floor Area - this is not Zero W/m2!
Conversely in a warm/hot climate there is likely to be a requirement for cooling so that there is not too much overheating, but again, only a small percentage of the cooling that would normally be required in a typical building in a warm/hot climate.

[SoChillWrites]

Wow Im writing a piece on this. Thank you so much. I read like 5 articles and no one was telling ACTUALLY where the heat was coming from.. Wow; from one's body just like that. Amazing !

[harrymills]

I think that umbrella (insulating) concept is more important in Canada and Scandinavia than in most of the Continental USA, with mean temperatures around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Much of Arizona and Colorado are ideal for relatively inexpensive passive homes, with a big advantage in available solar than most other places. In AZ and CO, the controlling minimum is water.

[UndercoverArchitect]

Thanks for the great points about Passive House! All so helpful!

[Constantinesis]

I wish you talked about cooling as well It becomes more and more important

[fcil]

Good morning Hans, Congratulations for the video. It is amazing how you managed to explain it so clearly in such a short time. Gorgeous!
I began as a Passive House builder last 2021 in the North-East area of Spain and I would be very pleased if I could embed the video with a language translation in my new website. Thanks in advanced for your answer.

[brianmcgeefreelancewritere]

Amazed you covered all that in 90 seconds. Many thanks! :)

[DanNicolaeServerHost]

Germany, not Austria. The first passive house is in Darmstadt-Kranichstein.

[typicalraptor]

actually the explanation was only 84 seconds. you beat your own record.

[tedcushman]

Of course in a cooling climate, that TV, et cetera, hurts you in the summer. One discussion happening right now is how to treat photovoltaic electric generation within the Passive House methodology.

[eddie]

could you make a video that focuses on passive house for a hot climate, thanks!

[daibhiseaghdha]

well done, the basics, instead of trying to sell us some thing. which book would you recommend if you have not got a fortune to spend on a passive home, in the northern hemisphere.

[lalalili]

The drawings are all beautiful!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Vector.Shafted]

Bro u should start making videos again, this was helpful👍

[gavinlo]

Thanks for sharing! I suspect that 90% of the principals carry across for cooling! But could you comment on the 10% as heat extraction would be addressed slightly differently.

[Rhinoch]

Now, let's make it from simple local materials such as trees, mud, and agricultural waste. Let's also make it super cheap so everyone can get it. And let's make a universal modular design that can conveniently fit the users needs, and you can easily build it yourself. Oh and it harvests its own rainwater. And grows food. Using the wastewater. And it produces, stores and sells electricity to the micro-grid. And you can stack'em into urban units.