The Passive House Standard

The term Passive House (or ‘Passivhaus’ in German) refers to the rigorous, voluntary, Passive House standard created and controlled by the ‘Passivhaus Institute’ in Darmstadt. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling.

The Passive House standard can be used for all building types and there are wonderful examples of houses, schools, shops, banks, apartment buildings etc built to this standard throughout German-speaking Europe. We in Ireland appear to be particularly enthusiastic and at the International ‘Passivhaus’ conference in Frankfurt in 2009, as with Nuremberg in 2008, the Irish made up the largest contingent after the Germans.