Passivehaus
Quality Air, Quality Lifestyle
Passivhaus, a German standard that is much more than a solar passive house, with a focus on occupant comfort Passivhauses achieve exceptional air quality by filtering out smoke, dust & pollens, creating an excellent living environment with remarkably low energy consumption. Peter qualified as a Passive House tradesman in February 2015 and uses Passivhaus principles whenever possible with the goal to create better living spaces for the occupants.
PassivHaus Qualifications
In September 2014 Peter Membrey was part of the first intake of Austrian students to undertake Passive House training. He was one of only 5 tradesman to complete the course and sit the exam. The course was conducted by the German Passive House Institute with the tutor travelling from Ireland where Passive house will be the minimum building standard by 2020. It was a very demanding course covering areas such as ventilation, insulation, windows and doors, thermal bridging and air tightness.
The world wide exam was held last November which Peter sat in Melbourne and in March was notified by the Institute that he has successfully gained Passive House Accreditation.
So what is Passive House?
It is a German building standard that is energy efficient, comfortable, environmentally friendly and economic all at the same time. It has a comfortable interior climate which can be maintained without the use of conventional heating or cooling. Passive Houses look like regular family homes with the best results achieved at the design stage, they can be styled look like any modern home.
So why build a Passive House?
Improved air quality in the home. As Australia has one of the highest incidents of asthma in the world, air quality is becoming more and more important for improved health. Reduced power consumption, passive house creates a more stable temperature in the home requiring less or no heating or cooling. The cost of building a a passive house should be recovered by the time the average mortgage is paid off otherwise it is not worth doing.
Peter is currently completing his first home using Passive House techniques. “It has been an exciting project, by using standard principles such as orientation and solar gain plus we have implemented many of the new Passive House building practices, I am looking forward to the home owners enjoying the benefits of this style living. This is the standard that all Australian homes should be built to as it achieves superior levels of comfort and energy efficiency than the current Australian building standard. Passive House standard is the leading standard in energy savings in buildings worldwide”.
Further information about Passive House buildings can be found at http://passivehouseaustralia.org/what-is-passive-house
