PASSIVE HOUSE
To a plot of 5.725m² , at Gastouri of Corfu , from a distance of approx 1 km from the famous Palace of Achilles, we had the pleasure to carry out the construction of a unique two floor Country House with basement and a total area of 240m². The engineering team of the company, studied the construction of a modern passive house showing the way to the construction of a new almost Zero-consumption house (nZEB).
The Residence was designed to be fully integrated in the architectural structure of Corfu, while respecting the basic principles of bioclimatic design in its placement and orientation. Combining aesthetics and bioclimatic design, the house was modeled with the use of modern programs from design to construction, faithfully following the principles of the Passive House Institute, creating the house of the future.
NZEB HOUSE
Passive houses or houses with almost zero energy consumption “nZEB”, as they are most often called now in the EU, are these houses that are characterized by high thermal comfort throughout the year, maintain constant temperatures throughout the house. without humidity, have good ventilation and ensure really very low to zero consumption.
These properties in Passive Houses are ensured by an excellent insulation of the shell and the openings, the absence of thermal bridges and by a ventilation system which preheats or cools, depending on the season, the fresh air that enters the house.
This is achieved with a low cost by taking advantage of the temperature of the outgoing air to heat or cool the incoming with a heat exchanger. Subsequently, these modern systems automatically regulate the humidity of the house but also filter the air that enters, offering Passive Houses a healthy environment free from air pollutants, pollen, dust and humidity.
In passive houses, the heating and cooling systems are under-operated due to the large energy savings and thus can be replaced with lower power and consumption systems, saving from the initial cost of construction of the installation but also the cost of use.
DESIGNPH-PHPP
To achieve all the above requires a special study from the beginning of the design of a Passive House and the architectural design should cooperate harmoniously with the energy study.To achieve this connection between the two studies in the first stage, the DesignPH tool was used.
The “DesignPH” tool was developed by the Passive House Institute to provide a 3D model capable of presenting and importing data into PHPP. The benefits of this specific tool are that it simplifies data entry in PHPP (building geometry, shading, etc.) and that it provides an initial performance analysis of the building within Sketchup.
The PHPP tool (Passive House Planning Package) is a calculation tool that contains whatever is necessary to design a functional Passive Building.
It also calculates the energy balance and the annual energy requirement of the building based on the data provided by the user.
PHPP includes dimensioning tools for windows (in terms of optimal thermal comfort) ventilation (for optimal air quality with sufficient air humidity) and building technology, while treating the entire building as a unit, including the ventilation system and other mechanical systems. Using the above software we managed to model the house to be built in Corfu and the results we exported proved to us that the Easy Green Passive construction system is the ultimate system of prefabricated wooden houses and offers maximum energy savings.
The result of the study is shown in the image below.
PASSIVE HOUSE VERIFICATION
The international standard in the criterion of the heating requirement has a limit of 15 kw / m²a and the building to be examined has a heating requirement of only 4.24 kw / m²a, that is less than 1/3. In the requirement of Cooling and Dehumidification, almost half of the requirement of the criterion 9.12 kw / m²a <17 kw / m²a is achieved, which if the special humidity conditions of the island of Corfu are taken into account, the result is excellent.
In all the criteria of the Passive Building to be examined, the study shows that the house in Corfu will be a milestone for the construction of energy buildings in Greece.