Ralf Bermich

City of Heidelberg, Environmental Protection Bureau, Trade Supervision and Energy

Introduction

Passive Houses show high growth rates, but nevertheless they are still limited to a niche market pushed by ecologically minded building investors and architects. Based on practical experience from this project, however, it seems that the Passive House Standard is ready for broad implementation. For the first time, an entire city district – Heidelberg’s Bahnstadt – is being built to the Passive House Standard, with a large number of different types of buildings. Bahnstadt is therefore the world’s largest Passive House area. This is possible because of a scientifically sound and politically supported energy concept comprising technical standards, obligations based on planning law and contracts, energy consulting, quality assurance, awareness-raising, and financial incentives. In addition, cogenerated district heat and electricity supply from a wood-fired heat plant makes Bahnstadt a zero-emissions district.

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ROLAND MATZIG, DIPL. ING. (FH) ARCHITECT – CERTIFIED PASSIVE HOUSE DESIGNER

r-m-p architekten und ingenieure, www.r-m-p-architects.com; www.r-m-p-architekten.de

ABSTRACT

The Sophienhof project in Frankfurt, Bockenheim, is the largest certified passive house development concerning high rise flats in Germany in 2006/2007. It is a typical intra-urban perimeter block construction containing 158 units in 5 construction units, all built on a common basement and centered on an inner courtyard. The quality required was ensured across the entire process from the planning, calculations and tendering all the way to the construction site through the close coordination of developer, architect, structural engineer, building automation engineers, PHPP calculation and construction management. Thereby it became clear that the sequence of the planning steps for a passive house project differ completely from those of a conventional project.

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MOHAMED AL MARCHOHI^a, BART JANSSENS^b, AVIEL VERBRUGGEN^a

^a University of Antwerp, Department Environment, Technology and Technology Management, Belgium
^b Artesis College of Architectural Sciences – Henry Van de Velde Institute, Belgium

ABSTRACT 

When constructing a house, many decisions have to be taken. One of the decisions is the energy performance level of the building. The constructor or owner may choose to construct conform the minimum legal requirements (‘standard building’) or construct a house with a higher energy performance level. In the latter case, a ‘low energy building’ or a ‘passive building’ can be constructed. Although passive houses enjoy a lot of attention recently and governments stimulate their construction through subsidization, only a marginally small amount of people chooses for the passive house formula. The main cause is the perceived high extra initial cost of high energy performance buildings. In the simplest financial calculations concerning this issue, uncertainty, the full life cycle and irrevocability’s are not taken into account or not well enough. The main question here is which of the energy performance levels is economically optimal? We analyze this problem statement by comparing the three energy performance levels through a full cost analysis over the full life cycle. We start from a massive brick building as a case of which we construct three equivalents (representing the three energy performance levels) virtually. The financial data is compared based on the Total Present Costs (TPC) methodology. These results are very dependent on the initial assumptions concerning the ‘uncertain future prices’. To counter this problem we implement a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the robustness of the results. In a further stage, we perform a Monte Carlo simulation where we vary all input parameters of the model to obtain a probability density function for the different options. These density functions represent the risk profile of each choice and contain more information than a simple TPC-comparison and a basis sensitivity analysis. Conclusions will be drawn based on these final results.

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CHIEL BOONSTRA¹

¹ Trecodome, www.trecodome.com

ABSTRACT 

Het project Nimmerdor in Grijpskerke is een bijzonder project omdat het anno 2011 als eerste in Nederland laat zien dat passief bouwen mogelijk is in een multifunctioneel complex waarin zowel woningen, voorzieningen als verhuurbare ruimtes zijn opgenomen. De bouwwijze is innovatief, maar werkt door op de Nederlandse traditionele constructie met een spouwmuur, spouwisolatieplaten in polyurethaan en metselwerk. Het project is een van de 13 Excellente Gebieden in Nederland en heeft bovendien recent het Passiefbouwenkeur voor het ontwerp verkregen. In het ontwerp zijn de uitdagingen integraal aangepakt. Het resultaat wordt een comfortabel project met lage energiekosten. De toe te voegen zonnepanelen maken het project goeddeels energieneutraal.

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SOFIE LUYTEN¹, LAURENCE VANDORMAEL², THIBAUT HERMANS³

¹Energieplus Ingenieurs – www.energieplus.be
²Brouae snc Architecture et Energies – www.brouae.be 
³BRUXELLES ENVIRONNEMENT – IBGE – www.ibgebim.be

ABSTRACT

Concevoir des rénovations économes en énergie n’est plus seulement une question d’épaisseur d’isolation importante ou de système de chauffage à haut rendement. Une enveloppe étanche à l’air est essentielle pour économiser efficacement l’énergie et offrir un climat intérieur confortable et sain. Atteindre cet objectif de performance n’est pas simple, et parfois même difficile. Ainsi en témoignent les quelques projets, réalisés ou en cours, qui s’inscrivent dans l’action “Bâtiments Exemplaires” de la Région de Bruxelles Capitale. Les problèmes particuliers rencontrés ainsi que les solutions apportées seront illustrés à la lumière de 2 années d’expérience dans ces projets exemplaires.