Designed around an existing timber chalet, this striking contemporary house managed to go passive on a budget for one lucky family of six, all while inadvertently blitzing Ireland’s forthcoming nearly zero energy building standard.
The first airtightness test has taken place at phase three of the Silken Park development at Citywest, which is set to be Ireland’s largest residential passive house scheme. A diagnostic initial blower door test, done when the external envelope was completed on one of the development’s show houses, took place on December 12 and delivered a worldbeating result of 0.16 air changes per hour (ACH), well inside the passive house standard of 0.6 ACH and the best result this magazine has ever noted for a masonry building.
The Passive House Association of Ireland (PHAI) has announced that it has welcomed four new patron members to the group: the Passive House Academy, Cygnum Timber Frame, Medite SmartPly and J & N Windows Ltd.
Airtightness expert Mark Shirley of Zephair reports from the International Passive House Conference in Aachen - with Irish low energy expertise attracting significant attention, and signs of a rapidly growing UK presence in passive house.
As the UK inches towards zero carbon and nearly zero energy building targets, the construction industry must pay increasing attention to the impacts of regulatory changes on design and construction, argues Passive House Academy founder Tomás O’Leary. But will homes designed using the UK’s national methodology come close to passive house levels of comfort?