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Construction Passive House


Passive House Standards and Ecological Guidelines "Construction Passive House"

The definition of the Passive House Standard published by the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Innovation and Technology, describes a unique quality of energy efficiency for buildings, but doesn‘t provide a defined method of construction.  With Passive Houses, resource requirements and construction and running costs over the next 100 years are about equal.  The construction of a Passive House costs a maximum of 3% more than that of a conventional building.  The additional expense is compensated for within a very short time by the factor of 10, lower running costs of a Passive House.  

When the construction materials are renewable raw materials, construction is partly passive because wool, wood or clay are all produced by nature.  The heating in a Passive House is exclusively by supply air.  Heating energy is often provided by burning bio mass.  In the Ludesch Community Centre, this is provided by the nearby wood chip plant which also supplies public buildings in the area like the school complex.  Warm water is produced by solar panels.

The „Ecological Guidelines, Vorarlberg“ published by the Environmental Association is made up of two parts.  The „Ecological Guidelines: Office“ and the „Ecological Guidelines: Construction“.  The Guidelines: Construction has the following goal: Right from the time that the products and services are procured, environmental compatibility should be seen and addressed as an understood criteria.

It often happens that necessary information is missing, and this is what the guidelines provide.  They also help to reduce the additional time required to procure materials in an environmentally friendly manner.  This must be formulated in the tender.  The simplest way is when the commitment to ecological performance features are integrated in the performance description and, if applicable,  the acceptance of tender.

The guidelines only give a short description of moderately good construction materials, ecological characteristics and arguments about why the material is only moderately good.  Ecologically commendable products, on the other hand, are described in detail with additional references and sources of supply.  Details about reference projects as well as tender texts and information about the use, utilization and disposal of construction materials is also given.


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