Passive House Project
In recent years, passive house-building strategies have emerged as a promising avenue to achieve net zero emissions through the use of targeted shading, insulation, ventilation, in order to reduce associated building energy use. However, while the passive house movement has displayed significant growth in recent years, costs remain as one of the foremost barriers to implementation, and thus, a considerable portion of this research addresses the longterm financial implications of integrating these design strategies within multi-family buildings in Austin, Texas.
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Across both simulated mid-rise and low-rise multi-family models, the adoption of passive house strategies were shown to decrease building energy use intensity (EUI) by 62.13% and 58.95% respectively when compared to code-standard models, in addition to displaying a cost benefit ratio of 1.43 and 2.62, respectively. Air-sealing techniques, specifically reducing infiltration from 4.0 air changes per hour (ACH) to the passive house prescribed 0.6 (ACH), displayed the greatest reduction in building energy use when compared to alternative elements of the passive house program, in addition to exhibiting the greatest financial returns over the building lifespan.
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