Feedback from International Passive House Open Day

We had 45 guests for the open day in November ,ranging from architects to home owners looking to retrofit their own houses to tradesmen. The visit consisted of a presentation on the overall PH design principles and photos of the build process for this specific house. There was specific interest in the heat recovery system ( which somebody described as looking like something from Star Trek), the windows which are a triple glazed aluclad & the differences between block versus timbre frame construction. 

We presented a 'hands on' number of items such as a sample of the wall buildup, airtightness tapes & membranes, heat recovery filters & live thermal imaging camera images of the building fabric. The was followed by a detailed tour of each type of room in the house, the plant room & the heat recovery installation.  Observations from the visitors included the quality of the air, good natural lighting levels & a very high degree of comfort

If there was a theme to my presentation / talk through the build process, it was that great products , from whatever source, need to be correctly designed, installed & commissioned in order that they work correctly for the home owner over the lifespan of a building. Furthermore , the Passive house building standard is a challenging design & construction standard for all involved but results in a very special living environment for the homeowner.

Questions raised which I'm in the process of answering:

•  Explain the certification process, what 7 who does it involve
• Climate files for PHPP
• Is heat recovery noisey? Can i save money by turning it off? How much does is cost to run?
• What is this supply air heating
• How much to MHRV filters cost & how often replaced?
• What are typcial construction details & why are they important?
• What is the ideal humidity level in a building?
• When is solar shading needed & not?
• Payback period for passive
•  Does it work in practice -predicted v actual data
• How do you airtight around windows
• Heat recovery as bathroom extract, can it reduce humidity.
• Do sliding doors work with passivhaus
• Opening windows in a passivhaus
• Costs.  How much more is a Passivhaus than conventional.
• What are the costs for the certification process alone
• selecting heating, reneables and ventilation systems and choosing between wall build types is confusing and the salesmen even contradict themselves how did you make decisions.
• How does timberframe breath or diffuse moisture is it to a cavity/rainscreen or inside through an intelligent membrane?
• Can you have an open fire or extractor fans in a passivhaus
• Is a passivhaus and a zero energy house the same.
• When contractors see passivhaus in for pricing do they think Ka-ching,
• Why did you decide to pursue such a low energy building?
• Is there such a thing as near passiv.
• Can you use cavity wall for passivhaus.