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TIL about “passive houses,” building that are airtight and require barely any energy to heat or cool
(en.m.wikipedia.org)
this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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They aren't "airtight", that would awful. They are well-insulated and designed to take advantage of passive solar heating and air exchange cooling. The way roofs and windows and orientation on the land is usually done for western homes is just terribly inefficient for capturing and releasing heat in the right ways. Just some thick walls, a bank of windows facing the sunrise ,and some proper roof vents that can be opened when it's hot is all most passive houses really are.
Pfft you'll never get accepted into journalism school with that attitude
They literally need to meet airtightness requirements to meet the Passive House standard. It's tested with a blower door test to check the air exchange rate at a prescribed negative pressure. You may be referring to a loose definition of passive house, instead of the standard, though. Airtightness is not "awful" as you suggested - mechanical ventilation provides fresh air
Yes, they certainly have to meet requirements for air exchange. And if you define "airtightness" as that, then yes, the ones that met that definition met that definition. What they are not is the common definition of airtightness, as in a sealed glass jar, steel can, scuba tank, or submarine, which if you look at the comments here was what was confusing a lot of people. I don't think anyone was contending that there aren't tests that these houses have to pass, just that the word airtightness, as understood by laypeople, isn't an accurate term to describe these homes.
I'd bet money that won't work well here in the southwest USA where it's been above 110F (43C) for almost 60 days in a row and above 115F (46C) for almost 30 days in a row.
Where in the southwest? I looked at Phoenix for a quick comparison -- highs from 108F to 111F for the past week...but lows ranged from 82F to 93F.
What actually comes to mind is Pueblo houses. Isn't this passive house just an expansion on that concept?