This report reviewed detailed test measurements for air tightness and heating loads for passive houses and non-passive houses designed to meet an energy target. From this data the Passive Houses (Passivhaus in the UK) predicted performance matched quite closely to the measurements compared to other non-passive house designed buildings.
“Most of the homes were fitted with mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems, which would not have been performing efficiently in the 81% of non-passive homes with leakiness worse than 3.0 m3/h/m2, the recommended air permeability limit for installing MVHR, the authors point out.”
“Whole house heat loss in the non-passive dwellings was much more variable, with some even doing better than designed.”
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