Passive House

Sustainable, Future-Proof Buildings

An airtight building envelope is the main prerequisite for energy efficiency and user comfort in Passive Houses. A number of issues that are central to modern construction come together in passive houses: they are energy-efficient, cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and offer a high level of comfort to occupants.

Buildings that achieve the Passive House standard maintain a stable temperature inside thanks to their highly effective airtightness layers, high-quality windows, heat recovery ventilation systems and well-insulated building envelopes with no thermal bridges.

Greater Levels of Comfort

There are no cold corners in individual rooms or excessive heat losses in well-insulated buildings. The higher surface temperatures on the inside of the outward-facing building elements also help to create a pleasant, comfortable indoor climate.

Fresh air at all times without draughts is delivered by a ventilation system that uses heat recovery to harness the heat present in extracted air.

Energy Efficiency

Passive Houses make use of existing indoor sources of energy such as the body heat of occupants or incident solar heat. When good insulation, very good airtightness and heat recovery are combined, a passive house can consume up to 90 per cent less heating energy than an existing, conventional building that is heated to achieve the same temperature. And compared to an average new-build house, savings of over 75% are still achieved. The heating energy consumption of a passive house (15 kWh/(m²a)) is a fraction of that of a typical New Zealand home. Even a brand-new home can be demanding 80 - 120 kWh/(m²a) to maintain comfort and health for occupants. The good news for New Zealand, our climate is quite mild, so creating a passive house can be achieved without super-thick walls.

How does a passive house work?

Certified Airtightness Systems from Pro Clima

Architects, architectural designers & builders can trust INTELLO^® for building dry, durable structures. The INTELLO^® PLUS and INTELLO^® Intelligent Air Barrier systems have very low air permeability, measuring 0.00 m³/(m²h) and 0.01 m³/(m²h), thanks to the tested adhesives and tapes: ORCON^® CLASSIC multi-purpose liquid adhesive for easy bonding to any building materials, TESCON^® VANA adhesive tape for joining membrane overlaps and hardwood panels (OSB), and TESCON^® PROFIL for sealing windows reliably into the building envelope. These products create dependable adhesive connections.

Seals around cables and pipes are ensured by the KAFLEX and ROFLEX grommets, which have also been rigorously tested. AEROSANA^® VISCONN and AEROSANA^® VISCONN FIBRE - a sprayable sealant and a brush-on fibre-reinforced sealant, are both humidity-variable vapour control layers reliable to use in pro clima airtightness systems.

All pro clima systems meet the highest efficiency class (phA) from the Passive House Institute in Darmstadt.