Passive House Building Standard – Good for North America?

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<h1>Passive House Building Standard – Good for North America?</h1><strong> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_frank lerner.aspx'>frank lerner</a></strong><br /><p>I just read a great article on the Passive House building standard that’s popular in Europe, and gaining interest in North America. On the surface it sounds like an amazing, forward thinking building standard that will ensure minimal energy consumption in new building construction. Controversially, there are a few areas the standard neglects including water consumption, air quality, building materials, and the building location. Passive House is primarily concerned with the energy consumption of your building, measured in kWh/m2 (In English: Kilowatt hours per square meter) and air leakage. There is both a maximum consumption limit for heating/cooling and energy needs for the rest of the house including power outlets, hot water, and lighting. Moreover the consumption is measured as source energy instead of the ‘site’ energy your building consumes (electricity, oil, natural gas, etc). One of the biggest concerns about the standard is that the consumption requirements do not change based on local climate. There are a broad range of climates found in North America and the standard, developed in relatively moderate Germany, doesn’t do a good job of accounting for extreme heating or cooling needs of cold versus warm climates or even more telling the wildly fluctuating temperatures found particularly in the Canadian Prairies where the temperature can range from -40 degrees Celsius in the winter to well over 30 degrees in the summer. This extreme temperatures put special pressures on heating and cooling systems that may require more energy consumption. Addressing the use of sustainable materials and water consumption seems like an important component of any green build, but it is conspicuously absent under Passive House. Though, the standard is driving innovation in the building and materials sector as this new technology makes it easier to meet the energy consumption, heat loss, and air leakage standards. I’d love to hear your Thoughts on Passive House. Does it makes sense to pursue this in North America? Is shooting for a standard better than having no guidelines? Please comment below. </p><strong>About the Author:</strong><br /><a rel="nofollow" href=”http://houseplans.yellowbluedesigns.com/cart.php?m=product_custom_list&customListIds=6|22,3|,4|,5|,&customListId”> Passive solar house plans </a> has become popular but there has been some debate regarding its implementation according to region. To know more about this and <a rel="nofollow" href=”http://www.yellowbluedesigns.com/”> green house plans </a> visit the specified link.<p> Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Passive-House-Building-Standard-–-Good-for-North-America_38104.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Passive House Building Standard – Good for North America?_38104.aspx</a></p>

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