Whistler's Austria Passive House

A video of the new Whistler's first Passive House, built and showcased for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

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[Wolfgang Feist]

It's such a good axample of international collabortion in sustainability

[PolyurethanesMedia]

Great video and beautiful house! Did the house use polyurethane to improve its insulation? You should check out our passive house project in Brussels, Belgium!

[electrodacus]

Thermal mass is an issue in any house. Without adequate thermal mas you will have huge temperature variation and it will not be that comfortable. I've seen those huge windows and without an adequate thermal mass that house will get quite hot.

Passive house standard refers mostly at the air infiltration and the amount of thermal insulation and is true that you can met that standard without thermal mas but it will be less comfortable.

Concrete can outlast wood by quite a quite a large margin.

[Hans-Jörn Eich]

BTW, just on a side note, Matheo Durfeld says it could be called "in Canada a net zero house", unfortunately, that's not correct. Net Zero means that a house produces at least as much energy as it consumes. You can theoretically make a tent a net zero house, if only you produce as much energy on your property as "the tent" consumes. Net Zero is a great standard, but it has very little to do with the requirements of a certified passive house.

[Hans-Jörn Eich]

electrodacus, thermal mass is not an issue in passive houses, as they are not storing energy inside (like many passive solar buildings, don't confuse those two).

ICF works fine too, but meeting minimum code requirements is no-where near what you need. In BC, you'd be looking more at ~12"+ on the outside of the concrete, 2" inside.

Also, these timber frames are designed for a very ling life. My house was framed in 1932, it is in great condition. The concrete in the basement is worse of.

[peromatem]

Passive House (Passivhaus) is the extremely efficient and successful product of two decades of top German, Austrian, Swiss, and Scandinavian engineering. It is not the same as Passive Solar Design, and in temperate and cold climates does not need high thermal mass. It can be constructed with brick and mortar, various panels like ICF – if they have at least 25-30 cm of insulation.

Look into Wikipedia under Passive house. Wooden houses in Austria, Germany are designed to last 100+ years.

[electrodacus]

I think there is not enough thermal mass for a passive house.

An properly insulated ICF building will have been more appropriate for this also more durable.

But I guess initial cost was a factor and long there reliability was not.

The only thing that looks properly done is the insulation for the foundation.

The most ICF producers in Canada have the 2.5" rigid insulation on both sides and that actually exceed the minimum requirements :) should be at lest 8" of rigid insulation on the outside.

[jingerfinger]

These things are so tight, no contrail fallout is likely to get in.

[DackIsBack]

It's not sustainable if you have to rebuild it every few decades because it's falling to pieces...

[DackIsBack]

This SHIT isn't going to last 20 years...

Sustainable my arse...