Good responses and ones I’ve heard in New Zealand as well. Change our building code in NZ to be equivalent to Passive House in a stepwise fashion; allowing the industry to predict and follow along and then, once we have this in place, moving on to other sustainability measures.
I’m fairly certain that the hydronic heating / cooling comments are misquoted. The ventilation system in a Passive House is for healthy air distribution and is set at the rate needed for health (breathing, moisture and VOC control). It cannot be removed unless folks stop breathing. Using hydronic systems for heating and cooling is great and certainly better mechanical systems is encouraged by Passive House but no ventilation is silly and I suspect a misquote.
The comments on designing for the climate are spot on as that is what Passive House does best. In the
Previous article has some great comments: “More than a dozen comments on our website raised some crucial questions around the Passive House standard. There were concerns about its suitability for the Australian climate, cost implications, issues with overheating in hot weather, reliance on mechanical ventilation systems and the possibility of mould issues.”
Content originally at The Fifth Estate.