Training course Passivhaus building projects management

GBM’s architect Helena Garcia has attended the “Certified Passive House Tradesperson” course about specialized knowledge to manage the executions of the installations and building envelope of Passive buildings.

The Passivhaus buildings study the location, the performance and the use of buildings to design properties with very low energy consumption for heating and cooling.

The basic principles of the passivhaus model are:

–           Insulation: Good thermal enclosure to protect from cold on winter and prevent solar heat on summer.

–           Elimination of thermal bridges. A right conception and the use of breaking thermal bridges systems let to reduce the energy losses.

–           The control of the external air infiltrations to ensure mechanical ventilation and to heat the building with a heat recovery system.

–           The mechanical ventilation with a heat recovery system is a key element of passive buildings since those systems utilize the psychometric properties as the temperature and humidity of the indoor air to transfer them to the fresh external air. That fact allows having clean air without the need to open the windows.

–           High quality doors and windows to avoid energy losses.

–           Solar heat and indoor heat optimization maximising the sunlight entry on winter and minimising them on summer. The indoor heat produced by human heat or the appliances are also used to reduce the energy demand for heating and air-conditioning.

The Efficient Energy directive of the European Union has the goal of implement the nearly zero energy buildings in 2020, what is a challenge to all agents of the building sector who has to satisfy the regulatory requirements.