Launching our Passive House Design Service
In association with MosArt, Ireland's leading
experts on Passive House design
Who are MosArt? 
MosArt Ltd is a multidisciplinary Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design practice, based in Co. Wicklow.
They completed Ireland’s first Certified Passive House in 2005, the family home of Tomas O’ Leary, Director.
Since October 2009, MosArt is Accredited by the Passivhaus Institut in Germany to fully Certify Passive House Projects.
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Several projects have been completed now, using different construction types, including a complete retrofit project in 2008 |
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Staff are very experienced in PHPP software – the essential passive house design tool |
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MosArt drafted national best practice guidelines on passive housing for SEI, both for new build as well as retrofit |
Why Build a Low Energy/Passive House?
The following are key benefits of building a Low Energy/Passive House:
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Whole house comfort all year round |
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High quality indoor fresh air providing health benefits |
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Very low heating bills, especially important with rising energy prices |
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Superior construction detailing, built to last |
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Low carbon emissions – doing your bit for the environment |
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Future proof your home, keeping ahead of current energy regulations |
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Open plan and bright living spaces with strong connection to your garden |
Technical Definition of a Passive House:
There are different interpretations on what constitutes a ‘Passive House’. However, MosArt uses only the definition provided by the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt, Germany, as follows:
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Maximum annual space heating requirement of 15kWh per square metre: 15kWh/(m2a) |
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Minimum airtightness of 0.6 air changes per hour measured at a pressure of 50 Pascal: n50 0.6 1/h |
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Maximum annual primary energy requirement of 120kWh per square metre (domestic hot water, heating and auxiliary electricity): 120kWh/(m2a) |
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Optimal heat load of 10 W per square metre: 10W/m2 |
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Achieving the first three of the above is required for official Passive House Certification. The optimal heat load above should be achieved if you wish to heat your home via the mechanical ventilation system |
Challenges in achieving a Passive House:
As you might imagine, achieving a Passive House is no mean feat. However, MosArt has considerable experience in all aspects of design and construction and can help you from first sketch designs right through to project completion.
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PHPP – all Passive House designs must be verified using the specialist Passive House Planning Package |
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Construction detailing – achieving the required level of airtightness and thermal bridging greatly depends on appropriate details |
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Right on-site - close inspection of details during the build is very important, especially regarding airtightness |
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Passive House Certification - if you would like to have your building certified as a Passive House, MosArt can directly provide Passive House Certification (ie. no need to send it to an approved authority anymore). |
Can I afford a Passive House?
As expected, it is more expensive to build a passive house than a conventional house.
The extra cost is likely to be 10% to 15%
But! you will never have to worry about heating bills again
Carbon neutral housing is coming in 2013 – make sure you don’t build a ‘dinosaur’
Retrofit/Upgrade Your House
In most cases it is possible to retrofit an existing house to Passive House Standard
MosArt would undertake a survey of your house, input the building into the specialist PHPP software and identify what measures would be required to achieve the required standard
Would you like to submit a query on Passive House Design?
