Passive House Classes

What's Passive House ?
Passive House is a building standard that is truly energy efficient, comfortable and affordable at the same time, tried-and-true performance-based strategy that can be used in any climate and with any building type.
Passive House is more than just a low-energy building:
Passive Houses allow for space heating and cooling-related energy savings of up to 90% compared with typical building stock and over 75% compared to average new builds,Passive Houses use less than 1.5 l of oil or 1.5 m3 of gas to heat one square meter of living space for a year – substantially less than common “low-energy” buildings.
Passive Houses make efficient use of the sun, internal heat sources and heat recovery, rendering conventional heating systems unnecessary throughout even the coldest of winters,during warmer months, Passive Houses make use of passive cooling techniques such as strategic shading to keep comfortably cool.
Passive Houses are praised for the high level of comfort they offer. Internal surface temperatures vary little from indoor air temperatures, even in the face of extreme outdoor temperatures. Special windows and a building envelope consisting of a highly insulated roof and floor slab, as well as highly insulated exterior walls, keep the desired warmth in the house – or undesirable heat out.
A ventilation system imperceptibly supplies constant fresh air, making for superior air quality without unpleasant draughts. A highly efficient heat recovery unit allows for the heat contained in the exhaust air to be re-used.

Passive House Classes
The heating and cooling demand of a Passive House may not exceed 15 kWh/(m²a) and this will continue to apply, but with the introduction of the new categories, the overall demand for renewable primary energy (PER) will be used instead of the primary energy demand, which was previously used.

• Passive House Classic category, this value will be 60 kWh/(m²a) at the most.

• Passive House Plus is more efficient as it may not consume more than 45 kWh/(m²a) of renewable primary energy. It must also generate at least 60 kWh/(m²a) of energy in relation to the area covered by the building.

• Passive House Premium the energy demand is limited to just 30 kWh/(m²a), with at least 120 kWh/(m²a) of energy being generated by the building.
  
  Reference:Passipedia