Passive House Zero Energy Buildings

Proudly Introducing Architect Dr. Christop Buxbaum as our Consultant.
Dr. Buxbaum is senior lecturer for energy efficient & sustainable building design and building science at the department of architecture at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS) in Austria. Click Here for More Information.

We build and design Passive,- and Zero Energy standard homes by utilizing building systems for all walls, floors and roof constructed from AAC-Multipor and Passivehouse windows produced by ZECHUSA.

What is a Passive House?

A Passive House is, when a building requires less than 15 kwh/m2 per year on heating energy and less than 120 kwh/m2 per year heating energy at peak heating season.

Passive House is the most aggressive set of energy efficiency standards in the world.

To accomplish this you need an Airtight building shell ≤ 0.6 ACH @ 50 pascal, measured by blower-door test, which requires at least a thermal Bridge Free Construction of ≤ 0.01 W/mK (0.006 Btu/(fthF)). Also your windows need at least an U-value of 0.8 kwh/m2 ( U-Factor 0.14) and your ventilation system needs a heat recovery with ≥ 75% efficiency with low electric consumption @ 0.45 Wh/m3 ( 0.013 Wh/cbft)

MHE a company from Germany is offering now following service in the United States

The complete Passive House concept by combining all the necessary components to present an affordable Passive house.
Our services range from constructing single family homes to large developments, offering nationwide expertise .
The construction of buildings to clients specification
In house architect and engineering services
Structures that meet the low energy and passive house standards
Eco renovations for both domestic and commercial buildings
External insulation and passive house foundations
Sustainable construction methods
PHPP assessments

German Engineering Now Available in the United States!

What is also important to reach a successful Passive House concept?

Interior Air quality

Our room air quality is very important. We remain inside of buildings, 90% our time. Our home, schools, offices, shopping centers etc. Therefore the air quality of all building is imperative for our live.

Factors like:

VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), be found in paint, Furniture, Carpets and flooring are causing cancer and are forbidden , however you can find VOC still in wood treading formulas and adhesive materials like SIP Panels an d ICF Buildings. It shows first by getting headaches, Allergies, loss of Concentration and getting more often the flue
Concrete wall systems ( radioactive loading to Radon )
cleaning items
insect treatments
and more also influence the Air quality.
Therefore MHE decided to use Non-organic mineral based Wall-Floor and ceiling systems made of AUTOCLAVED AERATED CONCERETE with a mineral based finish coat (no drywall and no frame wood)

Room Climate

What is also important to maintain a healthy Air quality is:
THERMAL COMFORT; to achieve this, we need:

A constant Air temperature of 68 °F - 74°F
Air circulation controlled slow air movement with a constant temperature of approximately 72 °F
Air humidity between 40-60%

Very important is the relation from humidity to room temperature, which affects the condensation (risk of mold and mildew) and construction damage (high humidity and low temperatures)
Our Wall system has no more than 16 °F temperature difference between inside wall temperature and room temperature.

Most existing homes have a spread of 25°F and up, due to insufficient insulation or non mass wall systems. This results in moving the freezing point into the wall, instead of keeping him within the 10% of outside from the wall system.
Here we use 4” Multipor which alone has a dynamic R-Value of R- 18, so that the freezing point never reaches our AAC wall system, even if the interior room isn’t heated.

Water Diffusion

You can’t smell it, nor see it, but everyone knows, if the water content in the air gets cooled to a special temperature (due point), you can see it. It will condense. Like in traditional homes. We have 40-60% humidity in our homes, when we cook or shower we even increase it more. Now if out room temperature drops, due to not good insulated wall systems, or thermal bridges, the condense water remains on the inside of the walls. Mostly we use organic , non mineral wall coverings, such as drywall. This causes the development of mold and mildew.
Our wall system in contrary is mineral based and NON organic and our thermal properties exceed current standards and no thermal bridges are available, therefore with MHE-Passivhouse there is no risk of mold and mildew.

MHE-PASSIVEHOUSE

A MHE-Passive House will only use 1.35 kw/h per sqft heating/ cooling energy per year and in prime time no more than 11 Kw/h per sqft per year.

Email: info@mhe-international.com