We’d all like to cut down on our utility bills and reduce our carbon footprint, and overall efforts to be more conservative with our energy usage have improved greatly in the last 10-15 years. Indeed, such has been the progress made that we are now at a stage where passive housing is a viable living option. In a passive house, a constant temperature is maintained all the time not just within a room, but in all rooms within the home, so you won’t have a drastic fluctuation in warmth from one area to the next. You can’t just lay claim instantly to owning a passive house, though; this status is granted by the Passivhaus Institut in Germany, the organization which sets out the energy standards that a building must meet to achieve passive house status. Passive houses can provide energy savings of up to 90% on conventional homes and even in Germany, one of the most energy-efficient countries in the world, a passive house usually reports 80% of energy savings compared to a standard home. These are enormous savings on the face of it, although when you consider the many ways in which passive houses are so energy-efficient, perhaps the figures are not altogether surprising. Gone are the narrow thermal bridges through which so much heat is lost in a conventional home; passive houses don’t have any of these. They also provide far superior air quality to standard houses, as moist indoor air is replaced by fresh exterior air, which is very beneficial for your respiratory system This infographic from EZ Living Interiors outlines the numerous benefits of passive housing, a concept that is growing in popularity with eco-conscious homeowners everywhere.
