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> My understanding is passive house comes from a German project. It shouldn't surprise anyone that strategies which work well in Germany differ from strategies

by boulos 4y ago

> My understanding is passive house comes from a German project. It shouldn't surprise anyone that strategies which work well in Germany differ from strategies that work in warmer climates. It actually started in North America around the time of the oil embargo as a mechanism to reduce energy costs. (See the history section of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house). Once that shock passed, people went back to not caring. Even at the time, and still today, most write ups are focused on harsh climates like New England or Canada in Winter, because it's harder. It's also the case that in milder climates, the cost to make your home passive has historically been higher than just paying the subsidized bills (and/or requires capital). So most of the US hasn't cared (again) until recently.

schiffern 4y ago
Early American "superinsulated houses" (the term-of-art at the time) used 12+ inches of foam, but often forgot about humidity and ventilation. As a result, many early examples became mushroom food. Modern passive houses use HRV/ERV technology, so they achieve high efficiency while avoiding moisture and mold. As usual, it's the early adopters that find the problems.
DoreenMichele 4y ago
Your own source indicates it was being called passive solar energy design in the 1970s and indicates Passivhaus Institut was founded in Germany in 1996. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivhaus-Institut https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivhaus-Institut As someone who has followed such things for decades, it is my personal recollection that this German project is the root source of the expression Passive House. Most passivhaus buildings are in Germany and Austria and everything your source says suggests to me that passivhaus falls firmly under the umbrella term passive solar design. So I stand by what I said unless someone can find a better source that somehow actually rebuts my understanding that passivhaus is a German project that popularized the term passive house and construction techniques associated with it, but it is simply a subset of the general concept of passive solar energy design.
- jesseendahl 4y ago
  If you Google “passive solar vs. passivhaus” you will find a lot of results. This one is the first result which explains the difference in terms: https://www.whitepebbleinteriors.com.au/the-difference-between-passive-house-and-passive-solar-design/ https://www.whitepebbleinteriors.com.au/the-difference-betwe... I believe passivhaus as a term did originally arise/derive from solar house, but since then the terms have come to mean very different things. I wouldn’t say that solar house is still considered an umbrella term for passivhaus nowadays.
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    I did exactly that and provided a link to a source in an earlier comment. I wanted to be a translator at one time. I've had Intro to Linguistics as a college class. I genuinely have zero problem with people wanting to use the term passive house to refer to a distinct set of building techniques and passive solar to refer to a different set of building techniques. Living languages evolve. It's a known phenomenon. And, yet, so far no one has suggested to me a better umbrella term than passive solar design. I defined the term thusly in one of my comments here: Passive solar design is about creating a home which needs little energy to stay at a comfortable temperature. My best understanding of life, the universe and everything is that without energy from the sun, earth would be extremely cold. And also wind energy is a form of solar energy which arises from air movement caused by temperature differences. So to my mind, any technique that tries to keep a home a comfortable temp using sunlight to warm it and air flow to cool it with a minimum of electricity, oil, and other energy sources is using passive solar. It's trying to primarily use energy from the sun in a passive fashion by means of elegant design suited to the local climate conditions. I guess I need to start defining my terms up front on HN for this topic because I do understand why people want to make this distinction in building techniques, yet I still need an umbrella term for this and I don't currently know of a superior umbrella term to the one I'm currently using.
    - defrost 4y ago
      FWiW and simply as an additional point of interest; the 1992 second edition of Energy Efficient Australian Housing has an entire chapter entitled Passive design strategies with a section on the use of passive solar energy. In a sense the entire book is about passive design, optimal placement coupled with sensible insulation to create optimal (and ideally passive (no additional energy inputs)) heat sinks, sources, and flows .. sometimes to heat and sometimes to create a draw and cool as a side effect. Historically much of this goes back thousands of years to designs that draw in water from a height and use heat towers to create flows through water sprayed gardens, etc.

by boulos 4y ago

schiffern 4y ago

Early American "superinsulated houses" (the term-of-art at the time) used 12+ inches of foam, but often forgot about humidity and ventilation. As a result, many early examples became mushroom food. Modern passive houses use HRV/ERV technology, so they achieve high efficiency while avoiding moisture and mold. As usual, it's the early adopters that find the problems.

DoreenMichele 4y ago

Your own source indicates it was being called passive solar energy design in the 1970s and indicates Passivhaus Institut was founded in Germany in 1996. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivhaus-Institut https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passivhaus-Institut As someone who has followed such things for decades, it is my personal recollection that this German project is the root source of the expression Passive House. Most passivhaus buildings are in Germany and Austria and everything your source says suggests to me that passivhaus falls firmly under the umbrella term passive solar design. So I stand by what I said unless someone can find a better source that somehow actually rebuts my understanding that passivhaus is a German project that popularized the term passive house and construction techniques associated with it, but it is simply a subset of the general concept of passive solar energy design.

jesseendahl 4y ago
If you Google “passive solar vs. passivhaus” you will find a lot of results. This one is the first result which explains the difference in terms: https://www.whitepebbleinteriors.com.au/the-difference-between-passive-house-and-passive-solar-design/ https://www.whitepebbleinteriors.com.au/the-difference-betwe... I believe passivhaus as a term did originally arise/derive from solar house, but since then the terms have come to mean very different things. I wouldn’t say that solar house is still considered an umbrella term for passivhaus nowadays.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  I did exactly that and provided a link to a source in an earlier comment. I wanted to be a translator at one time. I've had Intro to Linguistics as a college class. I genuinely have zero problem with people wanting to use the term passive house to refer to a distinct set of building techniques and passive solar to refer to a different set of building techniques. Living languages evolve. It's a known phenomenon. And, yet, so far no one has suggested to me a better umbrella term than passive solar design. I defined the term thusly in one of my comments here: Passive solar design is about creating a home which needs little energy to stay at a comfortable temperature. My best understanding of life, the universe and everything is that without energy from the sun, earth would be extremely cold. And also wind energy is a form of solar energy which arises from air movement caused by temperature differences. So to my mind, any technique that tries to keep a home a comfortable temp using sunlight to warm it and air flow to cool it with a minimum of electricity, oil, and other energy sources is using passive solar. It's trying to primarily use energy from the sun in a passive fashion by means of elegant design suited to the local climate conditions. I guess I need to start defining my terms up front on HN for this topic because I do understand why people want to make this distinction in building techniques, yet I still need an umbrella term for this and I don't currently know of a superior umbrella term to the one I'm currently using.
  - defrost 4y ago
    FWiW and simply as an additional point of interest; the 1992 second edition of Energy Efficient Australian Housing has an entire chapter entitled Passive design strategies with a section on the use of passive solar energy. In a sense the entire book is about passive design, optimal placement coupled with sensible insulation to create optimal (and ideally passive (no additional energy inputs)) heat sinks, sources, and flows .. sometimes to heat and sometimes to create a draw and cool as a side effect. Historically much of this goes back thousands of years to designs that draw in water from a height and use heat towers to create flows through water sprayed gardens, etc.