The Economic Demands on the Method of Founding a Passive Brick House on Foamed Glass Granulate

The cost of acquisition of a passive house is a little higher than that of a conventional house.Proper design of a passive house should include not only thermal protection and stability of the construction,but it must also take into account the price demands on each of the proposed structures and solution of details.The paper deals with the financial comparison of the traditional method of a foundation on the foundation strips of plain concrete and the modern method of founding a passive house as brick construction on the reinforced concrete slab base with a compact subsoil layer of thermal insulation in the form of granules of foamed glass.

Multiple Institutional Dynamics of Sustainable Housing Concepts in DenmarkOn the Role of Passive Houses

One of the central challenges of sustainable transition is the changing of the buildings. This involves social, cultural,political, and regulatory dynamics. Critically using transition theory conceptualization of a world of dynamics, the paper reviews institutional theory and actor network approaches in an attempt to better account for contemporary developments in Europe, encompassing EU reforms as well as multiple competing concepts. The emergence of ＂passive houses＂ in Denmark is used as a case of transition dynamics. The concept was developed in Germany and imported into Denmark. It is a technological niche, encompassing technologies, players, improvisation, and early customers. Passive houses have entered into fierce competition with other future institutions such as LEED （Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design）, DGNB （German Sustainable Building Council）/green building council, and active houses. Passive houses were at the outset a well-developed upcoming institution with design principles, software, certification and numerous reference buildings, strong enough to be a challenger institution. They are promoted by a characteristic alliance of architects, consulting engineers, a few clients, and an architect school, whereas the other concepts exhibit their specific actor alliances. Yet passive houses experience barriers such as the reputation of being expensive and non-user friendly, and are currently surpassed by the other concepts.

Climate adaptive thermal characteristics of envelope of residential passive house in China

Passive house has been constructed in China on a large-scale over the past couple years for its great energy saving potential.However,research indicates that there is a significant discrepancy in energy performance for heating and cooling between passive houses in different climate zones.Therefore,this research develops a comparative analysis on the energy saving potential of passive houses with the conventional around China.A sensitivity analysis of thermal characteristics of building envelope(insulation of exterior walls and windows,and airtightness)on energy consumption is further carried out to improve the climate adaptability of passive house.Moreover,the variation of energy consumption under different heat gain intensity is also compared,to evaluate the effects of envelope thermal characteristics comprehensively.Results suggest that the decrease of exterior wall insulation leads to the greatest increase in energy consumption,especially in severe cold zone in China.However,the optimal insulation may change with the internal heat gain intensity,for instance,the decrease of insulation(from 0.4 to 1.0 W/(m^(2)·K))could reduce the energy consumption by 4.65 kW·h/(m^(2)·a)when the heat gain increases to 20 W/m^(2)for buildings in Hot Summer and Cold Winter zone in China.

A Study of Passive Solar House Design

This paper deals with the investigation of the principles of passive solar house design, passive solar systems, and techniques for solar house design. It is expected that the research is to be of momentous significance to the design and construction of passive solar house, and may make contribution to the massive energy efficient housing construction in our country.

Primary Exploration of the Feasibility of Passive Houses in Korea and China

The transferability of European experiences with design,planning,construction and service of Passive-Houses to the specific conditions in China and Korea is investigated by the adaptation of the PassiveHouse principle to typical Korean and Chinese residential building,by the use of locally available building materials,components and building practices as well as under consideration of specific and typical ways of living in the two countries and cultures. The starting basis for the research is the analysis and evaluation of specific climate conditions,architecture,building practice as well as specific comfort criteria. The additional effort for the construction and service of Passive-Houses in Korea and China compared with typical contemporary residential buildings is investigated on the basis of a comparison of designs for Passive-Houses and for common buildings,including issues like the heating and cooling energy demand,heat and cool load as well as the required materials and components. The research results show that the described modifications of typical contemporary residential building constructions in China and Korea are realizable with locally available materials and feasible effort. They can reduce the energy demand for the service of domestic housing significantly and are in the range of European Passive Houses.

Verification of the Passive House Concept to the South of Brazil Climate

The high impact of the building＇s sector on energy consumption and on the environment has led to increased concerns on the performance of indoor thermal buildings, and led many countries to define stricter requirements for their building legislation. In 2010, the European Union has established that by the end of 2020 all new buildings must have energy consumption close to zero （NZEBs （nearly zero energy buildings））, increasing the pursue for more efficient building design. One way to achieve buildings with low energy consumption while maintaining a high thermal comfort is the passive house concept. The paper presents an architectural project designed to meet the Passive House requirements for the climate of southern Brazil. The energy balance was carried out using the energy balance toot-PHPP （passive house planning package）, that verified the compliance of the prerequisites required for certification, which are related to the primary energy consumption, heating, cooling demand and overheating rate of the building.

Lecablock, an Alternative Construction Material for the Exterior Walls of Passive House

In this paper it is attempted to investigate the Leca blocks as sustainable construction material for the exterior walls of passive house. The building physical properties of Leca design wall structure are studied along with the environmental impact and load-bearing capacity. To compare the results, a similar analysis is carried out considering the traditional wooden wall construction of passive houses. The results showed that Leca design wall structure can be an alternative sustainable solution to the traditional wooden wall structure of passive house, mainly due to its low U-value, its ability to handle moisture, and comparable structural load-bearing capacity. However, the wooden wall structure is more environmentally friendly than the Leca blocks due to its lower emissions to the environment and reduced energy use, especially during the manufacturing process.

Consideration of Shape Characteristics for Apartments Incorporating Daylight and Energy Performance

The objective of this paper is to design units with well-lighted environment and low-energy consumption in the apartment building. Their daylight and energy performance can be determined by the building shape and orientation. The paper initially produced the results of illuminations and energy efficiency using the daylight and thermal simulations by Autodesk ＂ECOTECT＂. It then provided the comparison on simulation results of two type buildings： Flat-type and L-type apartment. The available options for the design incorporating the environmental performance have less flexibility in fiat-type apartments than in L-type ones. The best unit in the fiat apartment is fixed from -45 to 45 degrees rotation, however, that in the L-type one can change depending on rotating the building. Moreover, if the upper level units had the appropriate environment, the lower level could have larger window areas in order to meet those daylight performance needs. Results show that the facade design should have the different window areas depending on the location of each unit. It can assist in the comfort and low-energy consumption design by using simulation tools that achieve the more predictable understandings.

Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of an Installed Multiunit Seasonal Thermal Energy Store

The financial viability of a solar STES （seasonal thermal energy store） installed in a mixed commercial and residential multiunit development of low-energy buildings located in Lysekil, Sweden, a maritime Scandinavian Climate has been investigated. Using recorded figures for the installation costs and performance, a financial life cycle analysis has been undertaken to determine the cost effectiveness of the system. The time value of money is considered and an LCC （life cycle cost） analysis undertaken to identify the cost-effectiveness of the solution. It shows that while a direct heating and hot water system incorporating STES can be economically viable in a Swedish maritime climate in the long term, assistance such as that provided by government incentives is required to assist with the high capital cost of the initial investment.

Thermal energy performance of compressed earth building in two different cities in Moroccan semi-arid climate

The assessment of the thermal energy performance of earth-based buildings with respect to the semi-arid Mediter-ranean climate of Morocco is scarce,even if the country is historically known for its earthen dwellings.According to this need,this work aims to understand and evaluate the indoor thermal comfort and energy performances of passive building in two different locations.We have used EnergyPlus modeling tool and in addition,the moni-tored ten-day indoor temperatures in two different thermal zones in the test prototype to justify the empirical validation of Building Energy Model.The findings demonstrate,the use of compressed earth blocks coupled with passive design strategies provides better comfort and great sustainability.Thus,the summer discomfort hours are reduced about 12%for both cities compared to conventional building.However,the combination of semi-arid climate-responsive passive design has allowed to reach a thermal energy intensity reduction difference from 20 to 65 kWh.m^(-2).y^(-1).