Cardiff Passivhaus

Some might know from this blog that I have done occasional lectures for MSc students at Cardiff University - those studying sustainable architecture - anyhow the Architect their has been building a Passivhaus and I thought this might interest as there is a link to a news item of it below....

See also planning request for a Passivhaus in Randwick here.

What's that? Well some 6000 have been built in countries like Germany and the US but here only a few have been built....Paola Sassi's house in Cardiff (see photo) is built entirely from sustainable materials and uses insulation and a heat recovery and ventilation system to keep the temperature at 19C and solar panels to heat the water, half of which is harvested from rain - it requires no central heating. In fact, no heating at all.

The Passivhaus standard was established by the Passivhaus Institute in Darmstadt, Germany in 1996. What Passivhaus means, in broad terms, is that the building is insulated to a level that allows the sun and other passive heat gains to produce enough energy to heat the home. Passive gain is the heat from daily activity, given off by people cooking, using the shower, making toast and boiling the kettle. Pretty much everything we do produces heat that can be captured and circulated from warmer rooms (bathroom and kitchen) to cooler rooms (lounge and bedroom) by a heat recovery and ventilation system.

Paola is moving to Oxford for a new job so hopefully she will be able to inspire locals there. Meanwhile I have now submitted a proposal for some part-funding of the 'Open Homes for a Sustainable Future project' - see earlier blog - where folk will be able to visit homes in the Stroud area who have done stuff like solar thermal, hydro or whatever and talk to them - the hope is this will encourage more people down that route - more coming soon on that.

See loads more with pics here and see article plus photos in The Independent here and watch it on TV:
http://www.itvlocal.com/wales/news/?player=WAL_News_15&void=170027