Montessori school in Aufkirchen built to Passive House standard

An energy-efficient housing trend, spurred by people’s concern for the environment, is gaining popularity in Europe. People like Georg Zielke and his family in Darmstadt, Germany have built a “passive house,” with its energy usage being a mere 10% of that used by traditional housing. The house’s heat is harnessed from extra insulation and “green” ventilation that uses passive heat sources, such as the sun, body heat and home appliances like the television. The German government is in full support of the building method and is offering low cost loans to people who want to build a passive house. Invented in a German-Swedish joint-venture in the early 1990s, about 10,000 have been built in Europe so far, most of them in Germany. Many people around the world are, in one way or another, taking measures to reduce global warming, just like Georg Zielke, and together they are making a real difference.

The energy savings of a Passive House are within 90% compared to an average old building. That has been proved by statistical methods (German). (Source: Passive House Institute).

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