Between 6th and 8th Novermber, owners of passive houses in Hamburg opened their doors to the public. Coordinated by ZEBAU (Zentrum für Energie, Bauen, Architektur und Umwelt), 'Tag des Passivhauses' provided the opportunity for those who are (like me) interested in finding out more about passive houses, to pop in and learn ‘on-site’ about them.
I visited a terraced passive house in Wilhemsburg, Hamburg. This terrace house has already been awarded ‘special recognition’ from the Hamburger Passivhaus-Preises 2005, and it is also the regional winner of the ‘Efficient House’ competition 2009.
The house was designed by architect Jan Krugmann, who was there on the day to show visitors around the house and explain the technology used as well as to answer any questions we had. We also had the opportunity to find out what it’s really like to live in a PassivHaus through talking to the owner. Visitors were a mixture of other architects, people thinking about building their own passive house and those who were just interested.
Immediately on stepping inside the house I could feel the difference in air quality. The air felt uniformly warm – there were no chilly patches near to windows or doors, providing what I can imagine to be the basis of a very comfortable living environment.
The visit started with an explanation of PassivHaus technology, including the need for high quality insulation with precision-sealed at joints to maintain air-tightness and prevent thermal bridges. The insulation of window frames and triple glazing was also another area emphasised as being crucial to a PassivHaus. We were encouraged to touch the window and feel how warm it was on the inside in comparison to a normal double glazed window. Having never seen a triple glazed window before, I was amazed at just how warm it was. It was also almost unrecognizable as a window containing 3 panes of glass due to a visual trick played by reflections between the panes. Jan Krugmann also spoke about the need for the builders to work to the highest standard as passive houses rely heavily on the joints between insulation and the elimination of thermal bridges.
The house is ventilated through a system which brings fresh air into rooms through vents in the ceilings, whilst taking old, stale air out through vents in the kitchen and bathroom (where the air quality is considered to be lower as the moisture content is higher). The energy required for heating and warm water in this house comes primarily from the solar collectors on the roof. If extra energy is needed, it is provided by the wood pellet burner in the living room which amazingly only emits 20% of its energy into the room, whilst taking 80% upstairs to heat the water stored in a 750l tank. Amazingly the owner said that he only spends €280 per year on wood pellets – that equates to just over €23/month!
Another persuasive piece of information from Herr Krugmann is that it only costs 5-8% more to build a PassivHaus than to build a regular house!
Further information on the house I visted can be found here: http://www.ak-passivhaus.de/091108_krugmann2.htm
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