Passive House - What Exactly is it ?

You may have heard of the term "Passive House" but most people don't REALLY know what it is. Well, a passive house is the newest step in the green movement. For a quick recap, the green movement is what most of the world is striving for to reduce pollution and get the most out of natural energy sources. We the people are now moving this forward to create awesome abodes for anyone to live in and stay green.

There have been a lot of different green movements over the years, from solar panels to cleaning supplies, everyone is finding ways to save the environment and use less energy. But one thing we have seemed to overlook is our housing. Since we all spend so much time in and around our homes we need to start looking in the ways of the passive house.

The first part of a passive house is the insulation build. Most average houses (if not all) have serious problems with insulation. I'm sure most of you at one point and time have noticed drafts coming through windows or under doors. Well, the passive house is almost 100% air tight to drastically reduce any excess use of heating and cooling units.

This new type of house also contains a unique air system that will continuously pump fresh air throughout the home. This mixed with the virtual air tightness of the house reduces the energy used by the entire household. Cooling units have been almost eliminated by the perfect placing of windows and the constant circulation of air.

When needed, heating units are powered by solar panels on top of the passive house. Using the sun's natural energy to produce electricity greatly reduces the need for energy plants to produce electricity and power homes across the country.

A passive house will contain human heat along with any electrical appliance heat (i.e. lamps and stoves) that will ensure the interior of the house stays at a very comfortable temperature while using minimal about of the actual heating unit.

In the rest of Europe there have been over 15,000 buildings built to passive house standards so it is something we are going to see more & more of here in Ireland in the future.