Passive House Days [2022]

We are pleased to announce the open house day of our two passive houses, which will take place as part of the event: Passive House Days 2022.

In cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana, we participate in the annual campaign promoting awareness of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly homes. A passive house is designed to drastically reduce heat loss while maximizing the use of solar energy and internal heat sources. The result is an exceptionally comfortable living environment with very low energy consumption for heating.

Between November 11 and 13, 2022, the Faculty of Architecture and the Passive House Consortium will organize the 13th Passive House Days. This international event has been held worldwide for several years, allowing visitors to tour numerous passive houses both in person and virtually. Due to current circumstances, this year’s event will be adapted by hosting lectures via the Zoom platform and by offering house tours live or online.

The passive house offers many benefits:

reduces heating costs,
requires no additional later investments,
ensures constant quality and fresh air,
is more environmentally friendly thanks to high energy efficiency,
reduces the risk of mold growth due to optimal temperature conditions.

As part of the event, the Faculty of Architecture will also hold two online lectures via Zoom on November 11 at 4:30 PM:

What is a Passive House? – a presentation for laypeople, professionals, investors and designers (Prof. Dr. Martina Zbašnik-Senegačnik, u.d.i.a., Dr. Miha Praznik, u.d.i.s.)
Funding opportunities for passive houses – non-refundable financial incentives (Mag. Silvija Kovič, Eko sklad j.s.)

After registering at the email address [email protected], participants will receive a web link to join the lectures via Zoom.

You can view the list of houses available for tours at the following link: Passive House Days 2022

Among the houses you can visit are the Bauta houses:

Passive House Velike Lipljene (in cooperation with Arhitektura Starc and Fibran d.o.o.)
Passive House Stična

What is a Passive House?

A passive house, or Passivhaus in German, is a building standard that ensures healthy, comfortable and energy-efficient buildings. The primary focus of the design is optimizing the thermal envelope—that is, the layers separating the interior from the exterior—to provide comfortable and stable indoor conditions.

Definition of a certified passive house:

“…a building in which thermal comfort (ISO 7730) can be achieved solely through the post-heating or post-cooling of the fresh air supply needed to achieve sufficient indoor air quality, without additional air circulation.” – Passivhaus Institut (PHI)

Because air is a poor conductor of thermal energy, the building’s heating and cooling energy demand must be very low, as there is no sufficient airflow to provide large amounts of heating or cooling energy.

A passive house is excellently insulated, airtight, equipped with high-performance windows and has a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery. Certified passive houses undergo strict quality controls to ensure they are built according to plan and meet the required comfort standards.

To obtain certification, a passive house must meet precisely defined parameters. One key requirement is maintaining indoor temperatures between 20°C and 25°C. There is also a requirement that interior surfaces remain sufficiently warm to prevent temperature differences between the air and surface temperatures, thereby avoiding mold and condensation risks.

Many passive house designs incorporate passive solar planning but with clearly defined additional requirements concerning insulation, airtightness and ventilation.

Main features of a certified passive house: