Early Engagement Key to Managing Passivhaus Projects

Compliance with Passivhaus targets is becoming increasingly common in planning policies and stakeholder requirements. Be it full certification or partly meeting specific compliance criteria, guidance from experts as soon as Passivhaus is mentioned as a possibility will help with smooth implementation and risk management.

Achieving Passivhaus standards comes with inherent risks, including potential challenges in predicting energy usage, ensuring high-quality workmanship, and meeting stringent specification requirements. These factors can impact project timelines and costs.

However, some projects are naturally closer to achieving Passivhaus targets than others, and without proper advice this may go unnoticed until later design stages. Developers that identify this early can also adjust their construction planning and costing appropriately, as well as use this as a marketing opportunity.

Engagement with Passivhaus experts from as early as RIBA 2 will help:

• Determine the likelihood of meeting Passivhaus requirements
• Co-ordinate requirements between Building Regulations, Planning and Passivhaus compliance
• Break Passivhaus compliance into manageable pieces with an incremental level of detail
• Manage risks and opportunities

The assessment of buildings against Passivhaus metrics is mostly carried out using PHPP, which is the Passivhaus modelling software. Models built in PHPP can be very simple and use assumptions when the project is at early stages. As the project progresses, the model can be refined with more accurate data, providing ongoing insights into the project’s performance and potential areas for improvement. This can then be used by the client to make strategic decisions and diminish the risk to projects with Passivhaus compliance.