Passive House
IBO regards the passive house standard as the currently most energy efficient construction standard providing optimal thermal comfort and indoor air quality as well as minimal energy demand for heating and cooling. A building envelope fulfilling the passive house standard is the ideal basis for a plus energy building, which should be a passive house with additional building services for energy generation.
The passive house standard is defined by its initiator, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Feist (Passive House Institute Darmstadt) as follows:
“The passive house is the result of the further development of the low-energy house. The key components are the excellent heat protection, very good airtightness and passive houses’ highly efficient heat recovery from exhaust air. A conventional heating system is superfluous due to the combined use of internal and solar heat gains. The passive house concept leads to the highest degree of comfort with minimal energy consumption.” [IBO: Details for Passive Houses, 2009]
We at IBO offer consulting services for the optimisation of passive houses (calculations according to PHPP, heating load, thermal bridges, ecological selection of materials) and measurements of airtightness.
Passive house certification
IBO is also authorised to award the certificate “quality approved passive house” according to the guidelines of Dr. Wolfgang Feist.
Passive houses require high-quality components (optimum thermal insulation, connecting details free from thermal bridges, excellent air tightness, highly efficient ventilation units etc.). When compromises are made for a component or when interactions are not considered to a sufficient extent, the building does not comply with the passive house standard and so does not ensure the desired degree of comfort. IBO GmbH checks the necessary calculation documents for correctness. In this case, it is an assessment of the planning work – complemented with the result of the air tightness measurement.
| Criteria for residential buildings | |
| Heating demand | < 15 kWh/(m²a) |
| or heating load | < 10 W/m² |
| Air change rate at a 50Pascal pressure difference n50 | < 0.6 1/h |
| Total primary energy demand*) | < 120 kWh/(m²a) |
| Criteria for non-residential buildings | |
| Heating demand | < 15 kWh/(m²a) |
| or heating load | < 10 W/m² |
| Air change rate at a 50Pascal pressure difference n50 | < 0.6 1/h |
| Cooling demand | < 15 kWh/(m²a) |
| Total primary energy demand*) | < 120 kWh/(m²a) |
*) total primary energy demand for heating, domestic hot water, ventilation and all other electric appliances
Certified projects:
- Residential complex Dreherstraße 66 - staircase 5 (Melone), 1110 Vienna (BUWOG)
- One-family home Gerasdorf (arch. Abendroth)
- Office building ENERGYbase (WWFF)
- One-family home Deutsch-Wagram (arch. a-plus)
- Office building Singer, Hartberg, Styria (Singer Bau)
- Haus MB (Optaeder), Sonnenplatz Großschönau, Lower Austria (www.probewohnen.at)
- One-family home Flurweg, Ternitz, Lower Austria (arch. ATOS)
- One-family home Aigner, Schiefling am See (Weissenseer)
- Prefab passive house Elk 159, Fertighauszentrum Blaue Lagune, Vösendorf, Lower Austria
- One-family home Schiller, Sonnenplatz Großschönau, Lower Austria(www.probewohnen.at)
- One-family home Höller, Sommerein, Lower Austria
- One-family home Hetzl-Tomsich, Drassburg, Burgenland
EnerPHit - Certification as “Quality-Approved Energy Retrofit with Passive House Components”
If the criteria for Passive Houses are met by an energy relevant modernisation, an old
building can also be certified as a "Quality-Approved Passive House", based on the same
criteria as for new buildings.
Nevertheless, due to various reasons, for older buildings it is often difficult to achieve the
Passive House standard with reasonable effort. The use of Passive House technology for
each building component in such buildings, however, does lead to considerable
improvement in respect of comfort, structural protection, cost-effectiveness and energy
requirements.
For quality assurance and verification of the specific energy values achieved, buildings that
have been modernised using Passive House components and that do exceed the Passive
House boundary values (for existing building substance reasons), can receive the "EnerPHit – Quality-Approved Modernisation with Passive House Components" certificate.
The certification criteria applicable to residential buildings are described here.
