Retrofitting to Passive House standards
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มี.ค. 2021
- Passive House, or Passivhaus, is an energy efficient building design standard for new builds all over the world. But what about existing buildings that already account for almost 40% of all global greenhouse gas emissions? Can they be upgraded to the same level?
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Research links
EnerPHit
passipedia.org/certification/...
EuroPHit
europhit.eu/
OutPHit
outphit.eu/en/
www.buildup.eu/en/explore/lin...
Homebuilding & Renovating
www.homebuilding.co.uk/advice...
Architecture 2030 Article
architecture2030.org/building...
Passive House Planning Package
passipedia.org/planning/calcu...
passivehouse.com/04_phpp/04_p...
passivehouse-international.or...
Passive House Accelerator - James Traynor Interview
passivehouseaccelerator.com/a...
CNN Business
edition.cnn.com/2019/06/18/su...
UK Retrofitting
www.beattiepassiveretrofit.com/
www.cnbc.com/2020/10/21/retro...
www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/
Europe Retrofitting
www.seai.ie/
passivehouse.com/01_passiveho...
Australia Retrofitting
passivhausaustralia.com.au/
Canada Retrofitting
www.passivehousecanada.com/
policyoptions.irpp.org/magazi...
USA Retrofitting
www.phius.org/home-page
Previous Just Have a Think videos
Passive House - • Passivhaus . A low car...
Heat Pumps - • Geothermal ground sour...
If the UK was serious about building performance they'd zero rate VAT on energy performance products like insulation, airtight membranes, tapes, HRVs etc etc, and then mandate that so-called "builders" must have at least basic training on concepts like thermal bridging, air tightness, thermal mass and interstitial condensation. As it stands, the UK domestic construction industry is a joke when it comes to high performance buildings. My personal journey has been as a non-construction engineer teaching so-called "experts" how to do do their jobs properly. If we're serious about these standards, then there needs to be a fundamental change in this industry.
great idea
100% agree. We are retrofitting a house for a customer, plus a wrap around loft extension. The materials costs are shocking.
Hello, do you have a website for this retrofitting of a house to passivhaus standard?
A step in the right direction would be to strengthen building regulations on all new build houses. My daughter has just bought a new house and it must be the coldest and draftest house I've ever been in. Costs a fortune to heat and this house should be about for the next hundred years. It's like buying a steam powered car. So far away from a house for the future it's criminal.
More to the point would be to ensure all builders and construction workers have to undertake CPD (continuous process development) so they know about new technology and the importance of good processes. A lot of present houses being built are not even to existing standards and most builders (I come across) have “not a clue” about passive house standards.
Yes this makes me scream too! A development site near me received permission for a development of 50 houses to passivhaus standard. But after a hiatus of 2 years construction has started and they are just ordinary brick detached dolls houses and the PH requirement has been abandoned. Shocking and disappointing.
So now we are down to the nitty gritty of what we can do, to personally avert our existential threat. It needs government support. To answer the usual criticism of government intervention, I include this.
Today our biggest problem is the money myth. Most people believe it is a real thing. They don't know that money is created electronically, out of thin air. It’s difficult to grasp, not in and of itself, but because it runs completely counter to the dogma of our indoctrination, about the need to 'balance the books' something we are deeply programmed to believe. This paradigm projects the “common sense” of household and business accounts onto government expenditure and the money supply. There are many reasons for this deception, here’s a couple. Deliberately provocative due to our existential threat.
The creation of government debt has the high purpose of endowing the oligarchic elite with an inherent privilege to extract rent from everyone else. Money for nothing, even while sleeping, similar to the feudal Lords. Think of it as a rent/tax extracted on everyone for their existence. There is no real reason for the bond market and the debt it creates. But it does provide the foundation for all other debts that cascade down the system, which brings us to reason number 2.
The money myth is also a fundamental way to control the vast majority of the population, to the will of the oligarchic elite, to keep people down and in their place, under the firm control of debt. There are many other ways this is done but we are only concerned here with the kingpin of of our financial structure, the money supply.
In popular discourse, this division between the ruling elite and everyone else, is known as the 1% vs the 99% of the population, in any developed neo-liberal society, bound by fiat money.
In pursuit of the Green New Deal a number of senior politicians and economists met with UK Treasury officials. In a conversation that included John McDonnell and Richard Murphy, they were told that the official line about how money is created and functions, will be maintained at all costs, in order to 'manage expectations'.
Further understanding of MMT can be found in, The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton
@@Jay...777 This is so true. Covid and the pandemic have shown how this works clearly. The money tree has been prolific for the chosen few with the country now 'in debt' to the tune of 32 billion to Test and Trace while a real terms pay cut to everyone else. That's why the new draconian Policing act is being brought in because they can see the majority are beginning to revolt.
We need clear pathways and good leadership around housing and energy use. Education about the likely timescales and effects of climate change and a clear narrative of a post fossil fuel world. Passivhaus is a fantastic objective but only part of the solution. At present we are not implementing any parts of the solution. Or only a few individuals are making the effort in an individual, ad hoc way. We need high standards set by government to implement massive public mobilisation around retrofit, greening our public spaces if which there should be many more. A complete turn around on infrastructure build to services locally to reduce travel and a moratorium on plastic junk and non recyclable materials.
@@holgre3470 Yes, I couldn't agree more. A big problem is we don't see the system we are subject to in any real historical context, which voids any valid critical review.
We live in a form of capitalism that changed around the turn of last century into Financial Capitalism. This is quite different to the Industrial Capitalism, that for 100 years preceded it. This reached its zenith in the mid 20 century with the establishment of the neo-liberal ideology. Our main difficulty now is people believe it’s been this way forever. Ours is a linear progress, where history always favours the elites, until now we have reache the post modern “end of history” idealism. The retort of our current leaders, that there’s no alternative, is bullshit.
From the earliest times, from before the Bronze Age to the advent of Rome and Christianity, the social order was far superior to our own in many respects. The mainstream history books have it all wrong by the simple fact of seeing it through the tinted glasses of our own dystopia. The pyramids were not built by slaves. The Babylonians knew all about the the tendency for any economy to degenerate down to an oligarchy and how to cut the oligarchs down to size before they could become a menace. The mechanism was regular debt forgiveness, the restoration of land to the people and the release of all bonded servants that had fallen on bad times - the Jubilee - a cause for celebration indeed. It’s interesting that everyone knows of the Rosetta Stone, inscribed with 3 languages allowing the translation of hieroglyphs for the first time, but no one knows what’s written on it. An oddity worth reflection. It was in fact a description of debt forgiveness, a reminder to the new ruler of his duties.
Only recently has this become apparent and I can recommend to you a book that compiles these recent revelations called, “and forgive them their debts” by Michael Hudson.
Or if you prefer, The Long History of Debt-Cancelation from Antiquity to Today
th-cam.com/video/M4DkZ3CWFOk/w-d-xo.html
Hudson is the one you want to listen to. Anyway, I have to fly now. Do check it out.
Visit michael-hudson.com for more goodies.
Thanks for the video! I can give some tips from a Passivhaus and building science perspective.
In terms of "bang for your buck", here are the main goals for new or retrofit builds is as follows:
- first define the entire thermal envelope. Know where it connects to your windows & doors. Know how it connects transitions between one floor to another, or the top floor to the attic & roof.
- Thoroughly air-seal the entire thermal envelope. You will need to run a blower door test prior to closing up your walls to make sure your air seal is good and complete.
- Super insulate the roof and/or attic. This is where most of your heat will escape in the wintertime via the stack effect.
In terms of other work, insulating your exterior walls and installing new triple-glazed windows is optional IMO. The most effective work was to air-seal the walls, since air leaks are where much of the heat escapes in the winter or comes in during the summer (at least for exterior walls).
Air sealing provides two benefits:
- prevents hot air from coming in during summer, or warm air from leaking out during the winter (which feels like cold drafts coming in).
- prevents moist air from coming in during the summer. If you keep your space air conditioned all the time in the summer, much of the humidity issues are due to air leaks in the thermal envelope. Air-sealing allows your A/C to cool the air effectively without making it feel too clammy.
High performance windows and doors are necessary if you dramatically increase the insulation levels of the exterior walls as well. This is because poor performance windows will act as a thermal bridge in an otherwise highly insulated wall, which ends up dragging down the overall thermal performance of the whole wall (windows included). You should install the best (lowest u-factor) windows you can, though technically speaking, the best windows have the same thermal performance as a lousy wall (roughly R4-8, in imperial units).
I would also suggest the MVHR systems as suggested in this video. Indoor air quality is a topic that is becoming more well-known and important to people. MVHR systems are designed to run constantly to provide fresh filtered air to occupants. They have heat and/or humidity recovery cores that exchange heat and/or moisture. This warms the fresh air coming in during the winter, and cools the fresh air coming in during the summer.
MVHR systems are supposed to be separate from heating and cooling systems. You could combine the two, but it's more efficient to have a separate mini-split heat pump to cool and heat your home.
I acted as the general contractor in the building of my own house many years ago. It wasn't built to the passive house standard but it was fairly well insulated. R20 in the walls and R40 in the attic. The basement was finished at the same time as the other two floors, and was warm enough in the winter that we didn't heat it much and used to play ping pong down there. This is in Ontario, Canada.
Only R40 in attic in Ontario? Canada? Wow, impressed. Would have thought R60 would be required
@@deansmits006 Not sure what it is today, that was in 1990.
@@lesliegweir ah, I see. Yeah, I live in the States, and the listed recommended R value for cold northern environments is near R60. I can see how R40 with R20 walls would still be fairly nice
@@deansmits006 The interesting thing about our house was, we built with a preserved wood foundation, the basement walls were actually 2" X 8" studs with R28, therefore we didn't need much heat in our basement.
@@lesliegweir R49 in So.NH, probably the same in southern Ontario, Northern NE and Quebec is probably R60
My California home built in 2002 was very drafty. I spent countless hours adding weather stripping and filling holes in walls and ceilings with foam and chalk plus adding more insulation and a solar barrier in the attic. It was well worth the effort
A key issue that needs to be considered is that many homes in the North of England do not have sufficient 'market value' to justify the cost of extensive refurbishment, let alone retrofitting to 'Passivhaus' standard. Retrofitting is far more difficult and expensive than it initially appears and achieving a 'quality' outcome is rarely guaranteed. I have dealt with the repair, maintenance and upgrading of some large housing estates in several parts of the UK. With a typical contract of 500 homes per renewal period, the economy of scale was considerable but even then the costs were high. You may recall the 'Housing Market Renewal' programmes in the older Midlands and Northern industrial cities some years ago, even then it was much cheaper to demolish and rebuild to an a far better (but not Passivhaus) standard than to attempt refurbishment. If it was unaffordable for Social Housing schemes I doubt that private landlords will be interested.
Same problem in the Netherlands. Most Houses are insulated step by step since the 1980's.
Costs for further insulation efficiency are prohibitive and the remaining return on investment is often negligable.
The insane cost of retrofits is a problem. What the world needs is a much cheaper way to retrofit old housing without tearing them down to the frame.
Same in Australia. I own a 1950's double brick ouse that performs surprisingly well (after I put a new, insulated, roof on anyway. But three hot days in a row bring the whole thing up to 35°C or more... but fixing that means either insulating over the outside and replacing all the windows. But that would mean the narrow driveway down the side would be unusable - there are scratch marks on the side of the house now. Also, the asbestos throughout the house makes renovation difficult. It would be more reasonable to dismantle the house and sell or reuse the bricks. Which would be helped by the builders having skimped on cement when laying the bricks :)
OTOH, the modern habit is block-covering McMansions with complex black tiled roofs... you can't even put a decent solar array on the roof.
All good points. That's why we need wholesale state intervention to get the job done. Another couple of pence on the pound for a 'Climate Tax'? Absolutely fine by me.
It's not a bad thing if it's cheaper to pull poor housing down and just build passivehouses. The main issue there is that people need to be able to go live somewhere else whist that happens. It's not always convenient. You can deep retrofit slowly whilst living in the property (although it is messy and a bit tiresome). This is _much_ cheaper than paying for two places and lets you spread the cost as finances allow.
Just remember, actually retrofitting an old house to higher energy standards is VERY difficult to get right. And then, if you really DO get a tight weather envelope, you can grow some nasty molds IF you forget to calculate and install an air exchange system that recaptures heat. My brother built what he hoped to be a net-zero house in 1992. Some systems worked and other underperformed but he kept tinkering with it even though it wasn't really net-zero until 2011. His last job before retirement was to do energy audits. He claimed that at least 80% of houses near him had been so badly built that it would be much more cost effective to replace them because meaningful repairs are so expensive.
I'm just installing a DIY MVHR system in a small one roomed house that I built last year. I've sourced all the MVHR components for under £500 and the building services engineer who supplied the heat exchanger calculated that I'd achieve 83% heat recovery. The MVHR unit uses about 2 Watts supplied by a 12 Volt power system that is itself powered by one solar panel and a micro wind turbine. It will cost nothing to run (I'm off grid). My point here is that you can do DIY MVHR and keep the costs down.
Love it
I would love to start building passive houses. As soon as this 'conventional' building degree is over that's where I'm headed!!
Have you heard of earthships?
@@rexmann1984 they’re better in their home climate, as are passivehaus. So, they would also be suitable in, say, Portugal.
@@kaitlyn__L they're good anywhere as long a you got the sense to drain them properly otherwise they'll mildew and flood.
@@rexmann1984 for sure! I think they are very similar concepts that borrow a lot from one another. I'd love to do many of both in my time here on Earth
@@rexmann1984 yeah wet climates create more of an issue with earthen buildings, but it can be overcome with proper design
A friend of mine is an architect, I don't know how pleased he feels when he finishes a project but I wouldn't be seen dead in one of his buildings. He designs mortuaries.
Maybe one day you will then? Who knows ;-)
@@JustHaveaThink I'll let you know :)
Ah, but you would be seen dead there.
We did a deep retrofit of a 1938 house in Holland last year. Every installer told us it was impossible with an old house like that, but we persevered and succeeded. The biggest problem is the conservative attitude of the average installer who doesn't know about heat pumps, ventilation, insulation etc.
_"The biggest problem is the conservative attitude of the average installer who doesn't know about heat pumps, ventilation, insulation etc."_
They are a pain! You have to watch everything they do, otherwise they revert to what they have done for the past 20 years. They say they have 20 years experience. No. They have had six months experience repeated 39 times.
Hi, I am also looking to retrofit a house in NL. May I ask what process did you go through and what company/consultant you used for that?
I just paid my electric bill for the Phoenix heat dome... $35. Without designers and builders. I am working on my sand battery too. Passive solar is easier now that I am retired. #1 I moved to the mountains. I planted deciduous trees on the west side, they are coming along nicely. Remember that trees transpire up to 2000 gallons of water every day! Like a spritzer on a restaurant patio. I open and close heavy curtains following shade. I decided I want east shade too, this summer I planted deciduous trees on the west. I have solar panels on the south, and I will have my sand battery there. At night I use a window fan, so nice. My house in town was brick, so in the summer I quickly hosed it down after work. It kept it from radiating heat all night. I also had a whole house fan that was a delight.
That heat dome convinced me I want a whole house fan.
Do what you can to stay safe. A water spritzer and fan can safe your life.
Our forefathers kept more comfort without becoming a consumer unit.
I managed the contract for the construction of a certified Passiv Haus school in West London. GIFA was 1600m2. We had to hold special training sessions for the 45 odd subcontractors to ensure that we reached the specified targets. The main innovation was to run a quality risk assessment programme and to put in place evidence collection and inspection routines during the build. Costs were around 10% above “normal” construction methods, but a lot of this was due to the steep learning curve. Interestingly the 500 odd children were included as a heat source for the calculations
Thermomodernisation is very popular in Poland. The most popular method is to glue EPS boards on the outside walls, then first layer of cement plaster is put, then nylon net is put onto wet plaster. Then second cement plaster is put on the net. After it dries the last layer of plaster is put which is composed of little stones 2-4mm which are in colored “cement”.
@@hunt4redoctober628 if the facade is made of natural material like brick or stone then obviously it’s not a good idea. Anyway the most efficient isolation is outside and when you do inside insulation there is always a risk of condensation of water vapor at the cold wall behind the insulation.
@@volkhen0 There is nothing wrong with covering up bricks and stone in the process of turning an old inefficient building into one with lots of thermal mass on the inside and good thick EWI on the outside. Render is the cheapest rainscreen, but the building can generally be made to look an awful lot like the original if desired, or just updated to a have a modern look.
Putting too much emphasis on keeping everything looking just like it did 200 years ago, during a climate emergency, is not very clever.
EPS+render is the most popular system in the UK too, because it's cheap and striaghtforward. I did woodfibre and render.
I did an enerPHit retrofit on my 1960s house. (well, mostly done - it's not quite finished yet). Mostly DIY which takes a long time but saves you a fortune, because as Dave said, a lot of the cost is in labour. Do it yourself and you can be sure it gets done right. The house has gone from cold and draughty to very comfortable and requiring almost no heat (solar gain is enough if the sun comes out). I've spent about 25 grand on IWI (South and East), EWI (North and West), 3G windows all round, MVHR, airtightness everywhere, woodburner, new door, skeiling, loft and eaves insulation, perimiter insulation down to foundations. Main thing left is floor insulation. The work has been spread over about 7 years so about £3,500/yr The windows were the biggest single chunk. EWI second. DIY MVHR was under £1000, rather than the £10,000 suggested in the video. It too 9 days to do all the pipework (so that was most of one Xmas in the MVHR cupboard and loft cutting pipe - if I did it again I'd use the ubbink semi-rigid as it's a lot quicker to fit and the sums are simpler). One day I'll finish the website: wookware.org/house/retrofit/
Thanks for sharing. Would be particularly interested too see more about your ewi and airtightness solutions.
@@samwell890 I gave a talk about it: th-cam.com/video/OVcvk9Wnyw4/w-d-xo.html
Are you the same wookey from old Navitron forums.
@@tomthomas5929 I am :-)
@@xxwookey Haha I always remember a handle. My current house is undergoing full retrofit: EWI, MVHR, ASHP, UFH, 3G glazing. UFH and MVHR will be done DIY, as will all the airtightness work; using brush on Passive Purple and tapes.
aout two years ago we converted the attached garage to a habitable room. 10cm foil covered foam sheets in the floor and walls and 60cm fibre/wool insulation in the loft. new double glazed window and French doors. it's now noticeably warmer then the rest of the house (2000 build). We also have about 45cm insulation in the main loft and insulation in all the stud walls. Oh, and the boiler is only four years old backed up with a whole new central heating system, The house has been neglected by the previous owner for several years to the point that we had to replace all the taps, the shower and many other things.
Well done 👍
We owned a century home in Halifax NS. It had blown in cellulose insulation in the walls, and some fiberglass in the roof plane. After years of drafty winters, we beefed up the insulation in the lofted attic (more than doubled it), insulated the basement and rim joist, added weather stripping to the windows and doors, and replaced single pane with double pane as needed. Plus we installed a new boiler. We cut our fuel consumption by at least half, and we had a much more comfortable house. This would have been a shallow retrofit by your standard, but it was a night and day improvement. Well worth the time and money, and added value when we sold.
Good on you. Not MY standard by the way - I'm just relaying what the industry standard states. Don't shoot the messenger :-)
Mike and I got the old Nelson house in Beaver so air tight that the blower door guy thought his gauges were sticking! 🌞 The new furnace controls fresh air through a heat exchanger, giving that 1 air change per hour while saving 90% of the energy in the exhaust air. Fuel consumption dropped from 5 fillups of propane per year to just 1, so in the future green electricity can supply the heat using a heat pump. Renewable is doable!
I did nothing. Not even insulate the ceiling (though I keep meaning to).
Instead I put 4.5 kW of solar on the roof (back when that cost 12000 dollars).
You've gone from 6 propane fills to 1. I *export* more energy than I import. You've cut your heating by 90%. I have covered my heating, and cooling, and dehumidifier, and cooking, and lighting, and air filter, and my EV, and hot water, and refrigeration, and computers, and my pool filter. And I export more energy than I import.
I don't burn less propane. I don't burn any propane.
@@gasdive Good for you! I'm just the workhorse improving building efficiency, the rest is up to the owner to get the solar system installed and running. If buildings are brought up to higher standards they take less power hence more to export, and they are cooler in summer, warmer in winter.🌞
@@chuckkottke both is good. Well done getting the building up to where it should be.
I live in one of those social housing towers, a true abomination. The floor/ceiling is a single slab of externally exposed concrete. It's ice cold all winter. In winter I can only afford to heat one room, so I sleep in the lounge, and even that triples my bill. The whole place is riddled with mould, and it's a constant expensive battle to keep it under control. Even the curtains move when the wind blows [which it does a lot here]. I have tried to reseal them, but lack the skill and equipment to do so properly. The council couldn't care less. My wall heater broke in the winter and I was told it was not a priority, it is still broken. I don't think buildings like this are savable, they just need to be knocked down, they were built cheaply in the 60s and were never meant to be used this long.
Jesus... This is prime example of a building that should be retrofitted too higher standards.
Sounds like your building just needs some exterior insulation, upgraded windows and a complete replacement of it entire HVAC system still significantly cheaper than replacing the building.
I lived in one built 10 years ago but the landlord denied the need to seal the windows, I also had curtains get blown about by the wind >.> he ended up kicking me out to rent it to someone else (kept saying Id never given him any issues but he just needs it back) but honestly it kinda did me a favour because the next place I found for the same price is way better sealed. The water heater kept tripping the breaker and his only solution was to turn it back on
@@deansmits006 it seems likely Drawn is right and it needs demolishing. Who builds a house of concrete slabs?
Probably they aren't demolished because of the housing waiting lists. It cost tens of millions to do a 'cheap' shoddy makeover on Grenfell Tower.
That really is appalling and inhumane. Perhaps we should adopt a scheme where councillors and town planners swap homes with you folks for a few weeks during the winter. I bet that would change their minds pretty quickly!!
I moved from a house built in the late 70's costing around $3k per quarter in electricity to a new build 6 years ago with an electricity bill around $900 per quarter. This includes moving from no AC to a heat pump, and a wood heater to the aforementioned heat pump. It also includes my 4 kids getting older and utilizing more gadgets and computing. No more chopping/stacking wood, no more sheltering in retail shops on extraordinarily hot days for sweet relief from oppressive heat, or going on a pointless drive in my car with AC. We weren't even striving for passive, and aren't close to that standard. We rate around 6.5 stars on the Aussie scale. First version. We will improve. $0.02
When a friend moved to a new townhouse, I asked how much his gas bill was. In a house 65% larger than mine, it had the same heating bill! My house built in the 70's, with newer windows, gas water heater and furnace. Motivation for me to improve my thermal envelope.
That's WITHOUT AC? A thousand bucks a month, on average? Wow, I thought my house was bad.... Oz dollars, I guess, but still. That's double what I pay in a poorly insulated 1961 4br home with AC in the heat of summer.
I live close to the most southerly point on mainland Australia and live very comfortably in my self designed and built 28 square home. With a few solar panels on the roof (3.25kw system) my electricity bill is $1200 for the entire year and my house is all electric. I am retired and spend almost all my time at home (family has all left home now). I faced the house towards north, placed the garage on the west end as a buffer from the setting westerly summer sun and placed only one small window on the east side and stuffed insulation everywhere. This house will continue to be economical and comfortable long after I am gone.
@@incognitotorpedo42 $900 every quarter (3 months) and we have a heat pump for AC now. Also I'm on Tasmania, a small island with one electricity provider.
@@incognitotorpedo42 They said $900 per quarter not per month. That's equal to $300 a month
You don't know how much of a difference energy efficient building design makes until you've lived in it. I am moving out of a B EPC-rated new build, triple glazing, insulated walls and floors (and it has South and South-East aspects with big floor to ceiling windows). I turn on the heating a few days in winter, max.
I've just bought a Victorian terrace with a rating of D and the first thing I hope to do is retrofit some energy efficient insulation and other design features to try to get it close to what I had before, but it won't 100% be the same.
Thanx for your work.
We live in Israel, so our major concern is heat and humidity. 11 years ago we've retrofitted a 40 years old concrete house into a passive house. We replaced the asbestos roof with an isolated panels roof, insulated the concrete walls (thermal mass) with straw bales+lime plaster, changed the windows to double glazed polarized glass + aragon gas, used concrete floor tiles (thermal mass) over fine gravel (instead of over sand), and shaded the windows. The insulation wraps the concrete (thermal mass) from the outside.
Before the renovation; during the summer, the roof used to radiate strong heat until 02:00 every night; during the winter, the whole house was constantly cold. After the renovation, the house if comfortable most of the hours in the year. During the summer we turn on the air conditioner only to lower the humidity in the afternoon. Last winter, we used a tiny electric radiator to heat up the whole house during the nights. Our electric bill dropped by ~70%.
This year, after 11 years that bureaucracy obstructed us, we have finally started to install solar panels on our roof (20.03 kWp), which is 3 times larger than what we use. The rest we will sell to the grid. Here we get per kWh we produce, ~85% of the cost we buy a kWh- a great incentive.
Retrofitted 1980, heat/ac half average. In colder climates what's currently missing for US building standards is foundation outside insulation so the thermal mass of a concrete wall or slab become heat storage for structure rather than continuous heat loss.
Great advice. I was lucky to build a house in the US to PH standards. It occurred to me that If I could have taken half my new insulation and roles of sealing tape to an old house, the amount of energy that could be saved on a leaky old New England antique home would be maybe 5 times the smaller amount of extra energy my house would use. A new house like mine used lots of new virgin materials and a fair amount on concrete and other energy intensive products too. Bringing an old home to EnerPHit is certainly expensive but should be even more satisfying that realizing you new home dreams.
I found the most effective components were exterior cladding and a ground source heat pump. The house is an 1890 detached pair of miner's cottages, so since I bought it semi derelict 30 years ago I've used most of the obvious methods, and found that most of them go out of date quite quickly. My advice is do what you can as you go and don't worry about catching up with technology as you never will. Perhaps the best bet after all is to replace existing buildings with passive houses, but since that is impractical I am just running the house on renewable energy and apart from the occasional chainsaw for diseased trees have more or less eliminated fossil fuel.
I agree. I have a home built in the 1970s, and I imagine it's a bit leaky. Before I bought in 2014, me windows, gas water heater and furnace, which I'm sure went a bit way in keeping my best bills down. Now, I'm looking to improve. Lowest hanging fruit, energy audit to seal air leaks. Then add insulation in attic space I estimate I only have about R20 up there. Maybe someday insulate floor, but that's a diminishing return. Longer in future, I'll have to convert from gas heat to hear pump to really reduce CO2
@@deansmits006 a nice bonus with heat pumps is they’re far easier to run off rooftop solar as well!
@@kaitlyn__L I live off grid in a cold stone leaky house comfortably off 4 cords of locally sourced fire wood. I could without much difficulty change things a bit with a few cheap items and greatly diminish those 4 cords. Dont fall for this passive house nonsense. Best wishes.
@@jimmycorkhill1390 I certainly believe pursuing complete passivity can be a bit overkill in many cases. But nevertheless, a heat pump outputs more heat than the energy it uses. As much as I like using a wood-fired central heating, it’s much less labour intensive to just let a heat pump run on a thermostat. IMO, best to save the wood for the coldest days where the heat pump’s efficacy goes down below 200%.
I heat with wood. I am also a tree farmer. My net carbon contribution is negative. My trees sequester more carbon than I release. Therein lies the solution, not killer Gates blotting out the sun and screwing us and the environment- again.
The short cuts and carelessness of most builders never ceases to disappoint me. I feel bad for people in poorly build buildings. Excessive energy bills and still uncomfortable. Sad.
I can’t believe you made a video about this. I’ve been watching videos of retrofits for the past couple of weeks. Fantastic!
This is not about passive houses, not about saving the world but about something that can be done by anyone.
I am a Pole living in the UK. Back in Poland, every new build, as well as many old houses, have 100-200mm of external insulation ( yes - In Poland winters are much colder and summers are usually warmer).
I was very shocked when I first arrived in the UK that literally no houses have any kind of insulation. Yes, some of them have a cavity wall and "some" insulation but not much in general. Also, in most old houses there is ZERO insulation between the ground and the floor on the ground floor.
When I bought my first house(average size 3-bed semi), I renovated it and after living in there for 2 years, I decided to insulate external walls - not much: 50mm of styrofoam + render. I didn't want the insulation to be very visible.
Only by doing this, my energy bills have dropped by half. The house always keeps a very stable temperature around 22C during the winter and never overheats during summer. Yes, in the UK we do get quite a few hot days too.
Now - let's do some maths :
I spent on insulating around £5000, I was saving £600 a year which is going to pay off in 9 years.
Any solar PV installation will pay off in 17+ years but solar panels usually lose their performance after 20-30 years. The actual gain of the PV installation is very debatable or minimal.
Solar panels costs have dropped every year for the past 10 years. You might be surprised how cost effective it now is. Most new systems have a payback of 7 years or less. After that you are getting free energy from the sun.
According to the plastics Europe organisation EPS lasts 50 years. After which you're going to have to strip off the render, replace the Styrofoam, and re render. It will cost far more than the work you've already done.
PV, after 30-40 years you'll have to unbolt the existing panels, unplug them, plug in new panels and bolt them back onto the same mounts. All the mounts, wiring, export meter and inverters can stay. Just the panels are now around 20 cents per watt retail. So for a 6 kW system that would make your house a net exporter of energy, you're looking at 1200 dollars plus labour at today's panel prices. Panel prices have fallen by 99% in the last 30 years. They won't do that again, but I'd still expect them to be cheaper than today.
@@gasdive You really think the EPS under the render will degrade significantly? It reamains to be seen but given how long the stuff lasts just floating about in the sea I reckon that dead still in the dark it'll last the lifetime of the building, or at least 100 years. I do think it's a better idea to use more-breathable woodfibre rather than all that plastic but at the moment it costs significantly more.
@Cezary Well done - just need everyone else to do the same thing (and stick 200mm on rather than 50 whilst they are doing it). As you say it's amazing the degree to which we don't bother insulating our houses, nor taking any airtightness measures, when it's totally standard in much of the rest of Europe. Did you do your own rendering too? I'm impressed.
@@xxwookey I don't know. I'm just quoting the European organisation that promotes its use.
When the exterior of a non-brick building is being updated, such as when siding is being replaced, is a good time to explore upgrades. Insulation can be added to the exterior that is a continuous layer, which is much more effective than the usual batt insulation. The great part is also that exterior insulation also won't cut into living space.
That said, no reason to wait increasing attic insulation. But don't forget that it's important to air seal before insulating... if there are lots of leaks in the attic that carry air through the insulation, then the insulation is doing little good. In fact, a decent sized attic can be air sealed with a spray foam gun and a 5 cans of foam for a hundred dollars by a DIYer, which will be easier for homes with batt insulation (blown insulation makes this work much harder). This is an energy upgrade that will pay for itself within a year or two. It's also kind of fun and is something I did on our previous home. :)
There are critical elements of airflow required in loft spaces, so beware of the seal-it-all-up approach. I have seen rooves fail in as little as 7 years due to being sealed up. "Siding", so you're American. Over here (UK), we don't build that way, and even if we did, externally insulating has profound implications for the ralationship between walls and roof (reduced overhangs), and for vapour transmission through the wall structure. Like I've said a number of times.....beware simplistic solutions.
Insulate and seal, then breath in those toxic chemicals? Best wishes.
I think this is what the installers did when they put insulation in my home. I remember them spraying something and hauling bags of fiberglass up there.
@@MikeAG333 External insulation is always better for the building structure than internal. Keeps it warm and dry and the thermal mass on the inside. Make the EWI vapour permeable so no risk of trapping moisture long-term. Overhangs can be extended if need be. EWI is not 'simplistic' - it's generally a very good plan. The only good arguments against it are usually aesthetic architectural details, and when there simply isn't room (e.g narrow side passages, or abutting other buildings). I guess there will be a few other problematic cases.
@@jimmycorkhill1390 "Insulate and seal, then breath in those toxic chemicals". No: insulate, seal and ventilate (usually MVHR). Ventilation is vital to the functioning of both buildings and people.
Another thought provoking video. Thanks for this its really opened my eyes to a different way of doing things!
Thank you, Dave! So close to the heart of a 35 year veteran of the construction industry!
Thanks for your work!
Thank you for the video - this is really important to raise public awareness on energy efficiency of housing!
All new buildings and major remodels need to be energy efficient. Saving energy saves money on monthly utilities. Blower door testing and air sealing are under appreciated. It is like closing an open window, I had my home blower door tested and air sealed and was able to reduce my utility bills by 30% the next month. I thought my home was pretty energy efficient to start. In a older leaky home the savings would be even greater.
Back in the 1980's (or was it earlier) a TV company (Yorkshire?) did a retrofit on an isolated building which involved cladding the outside of the stone walled house with Rockwall batts under Weather boarding, turning the whole building into a heat sink. Together with roof insulation and double glazing, and a few other minor adjustments, the house was transformed, and became much cheaper (energy efficient) to run.
I wonder what happened to the original film of the project?
Granada TV did a program in the 1980s. A friend of mine bought it and it still performs better than modern mass built houses.
There are quite a few BRE (building research establishment) documents available for such projects, im guessing that it was one of these that was covered/reported on or they documented it retrospectively. Best wishes.
We have a 1942 bungalow in Seattle. I wish I did a blower door on the house beforehand, so I could see how much I tightened it up. 2 years, two rolls of housewrap, a load of cellulose insulation and countless tubes of caulk and bottles of spray foam later, the house blew 7.5 ach50, nowhere near passive house or Enerphit level, but tight enough to surprise the energy auditor. 😂
I think the only way to do much better without a full deep retrofit would be to use closed cell foam insulation, but I don’t feel confident enough to DIY with that stuff. If I ever get to it, I might try xps foam board in the crawl space. When we redid our siding, I thought about external insulation, explained in the video, but it would mean zero roof overhang because our house doesn’t have eaves or soffits. That’s just a taste of the complicated mess that is retrofitting existing homes.
The only way to get to passive house standards is to basically gut the house at significant expense to the homeowner, although there are some interesting products like Aerobarrier that make it a little more affordable. Would be great if we had an army of trained home performance experts that could provide affordable advice to homeowners and manage the home upgrade process for us. No easy solutions.
An energy efficient home is more comfortable and saves money in the long run.
Added insulation, triple glaze windows, energy efficient doors, energy efficient heating and cooling systems, energy efficient appliances, LED lighting, solar panels combined with battery storage and a electric vehicle charger in the garage or car park. People are too focused on the short term costs and miss out on long term savings.
People also have to keep moving around for work. So investing in a property can be an expensive gamble that isn’t always going to allow costs to be recovered. Also, an ageing population on fixed incomes and immense future care expenses would give less time to win out on any long term cost savings and nothing in the pot for personal care.
Been involved in a number of deep retrofits to Passivhaus standard, first tip, make sure the architect knows that the envelope includes the ceilings in said property. Also, anyone undertaking their own retrofit, I would advise objecting to any new builds being built locally on the grounds they are inefficient and should strive to be as good as if not better than Passivhaus standards. Lastly it takes a lot longer than standard building work to be completed, be patient and don't scrimp on labour' and trades.
Thanks Dave for providing this edifying presentation; the best answers really are right in front of us!! 🌄🌍🌏🌎
Great follow through👏
Retrofitting houses and buildings is a crutial stage in moving forward. Trimming the waste is the first stage of rationing resources adequately.
Thanks for another excellent video on a critical matter. I love your video's. So well done! You are right, the focus has to be on retrofitting older homes as that is 90% of our housing stock.
Back in 1986 we built a new 1700 ft2 (158 m2) passive home in Winnipeg Manitoba in which the heating (gas 85% efficient furnace) plus domestic hot water (also gas fired HWT) cost us less than $400 per year. Today that would be closer to $1,000 in 2021. It has R30 walls, R50 attic, R8 on exterior of basement (sub grade) and triple pane windows (no argon as it leaks out in a few years). For comparison my previous home was 650 ft2 (60 m2) and heating alone cost over $900 in 1985.
Now in Victoria, BC, we have done extensive modifications to our 1967 built 1900 ft2 (232 m2) home and have reduced our annual total energy bill from $2500 in 2008 to about $1,200 today and cut CO2 emissions by over 90%. We replaced our single pane windows with well made double pane, insulated the basement to R22, replaced 2 doors with insulated steel doors and replaced the patio door with a fixed window and a swinging door (called an Euro door over here) both with double panes. Our Canadian home energy rating went from 67 to 82. I have maintained energy stats for over 20 years and done a detailed longitudinal energy study on the home. You can find it at donscottscivics501.wordpress.com if interested.
While our home's energy costs are minimal, I'd still like to find a way to insulate the walls on the home from the outside without tearing off the stucco. Our exterior walls are only 2x4 with old R7 insulation in them. There are no vapour barriers in the house beyond the old paper backing on the R7 fibreglass insulation. Is there a product one can put on the exterior and stucco over that breathes so that I don't get a dew point in the middle of the wall?
Of course one of the problems is the means and methods will have to vary according to climate. The broad standard of a certain target expense per area or cubic volume can still be a good standard, but the how's to get there are very different. I worked construction in Alaska for many years before moving to southern California. In Alaska those ideas you mentioned about moisture, air tightness, cool walls producing problems etc. are all valid. In California it is the opposite. The air will suck the moisture out of your house, so an interior vapor barrier is really a no-no. Also the worksheet you showed, was centered on the cost of heating, which is nil here. Its the cost of cooling that is high. Cooling a house in a dry environment makes for a different set of challenges and solutions. Also you have to add that block masonry is not a good idea due to the seismic considerations. Light frame built houses have less mass and thus incur less damage during an earthquake. Even small shakers can undo all that detailed sealing tape hidden in the walls. Lots to think about.
Excellent video very informative and balanced. Keep up the good work
👍👍👍
Refurbished our Victorian end terrace to a certified Passiv Haus. An interesting experience to live through. You need lots of research and it is not financially attractive but we finished up with a very nice house to live in. PHPP is a great product and you learn a lot about your house and design choices when using it. Addressing Thermal Bridges was the hardest challenge and learning the modelling software rewarding. Understanding the modelling avoids messing up. An internal insulation solution we used was only acceptable because of the orientation of the external wall - the WUFI modelling tool was vital in the design choice.
Do not forget that industry buildings must be looked at as well to achive our climate goals. There is a big potential in energy savings by applying smart designs for gates, rearranging of processes, utilisation of process waste heat, better insulation, utilisation of solar thermal heat...
Brilliant as ever! We are in the middle of a renovation project on our old property. Couple of things I noted about the process:
1) In our situation we did not need an architect because the layout was staying broadly the same (minus a couple of walls). So we hired the very good local builder. As a 'client' what you want is always mediated through what the builder can actually do, especially in say a rural area with limited choices of builders. This can show In terms of their skills and experience, but also in terms of their supply base and their attitude to new methods and materials. Builders can be quite conservative and cautious of new ideas, which some of the Enerphit stuff often is for them. So they will want to do things their way - for example they may have a preference for concrete foundations over wooden raised floors because they are used to installing underfloor heating that way. Which brings me to point 2:
2) Building works are incredibly materials intensive and making 'green' choices with respect to practices and materials in this industry is a tough call. Builders can see it as more expensive, possibly inferior performance wise, and more difficult to install, especially for things like insulation where Styrofoam is king. There are lots of real and imagined barriers for them. When you approach from a relatively ignorant starting point, it is difficult to insist on a path forward without friction and unexpected additional costs.
An architect can help by designing and specifying 'green' stuff knowing they were appropriate for the building and reducing any doubts from the builders (or client). The builders can then follow the plans, like a recipe. But using an architect of course comes at significant upfront cost (and time), and is not without its own tensions.
Anyway, in our case we are very happy with how things are working out on our project.
Good info Simon. I'm glad to hear you got a good result. I did Project Management on new retails store spaces for nearly a decade, and when I first started my boss told me "some tradespeople are brilliant and some are not. The less flexible will always give you a rational reason why things can't be done. And when you scratch the surface that rationale is usually that they simply don't want to do it." The Project Manager's job is to be 'Irrational' and not accept their word for it. It takes a bit of managing, and there are certainly some terse conversations, but eventually a middle ground is found. It's not easy though, I must admit.
Highly recommend hiring an energy consultant (preferably someone Passive House certified). He or she will understand where air barriers and vapour barriers and weather barriers need to be placed, as well as the combination of materials that when combined will not result in mold.
Thank you so much for giving my brainstorms a kick. I have been trying to figure out how to add a greenhouse to my 250 year old inefficient home. So if I find someone to retrofit the south and southwest walls half way up with triple glass french doors and cement/foam blocks. That will solve a fair amount of the many problems this old house has. Love your site!
Thanks for another great video!
This is one that shows all of us a way to personally contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, because it's something we can all do if we have the money. It's quite a large investment, though.
I did the shallow retrofit thing a number of years back. I got a home renovation grant from the city, and as part of the deal some specialist types came and scanned my home with a thermal camera. They were not pleased. Apparently the house was so leaky they said it was the equivalent of having a seven foot hole in the wall. That was before the renovations. I put in a number of new, more efficient windows and put insulation up in the attic. (Apparently the house had gone without insulation of any kind for more than fifty years.) Afterwards it felt nicer inside since there weren't any wild temperature swings, and there was a lot less popping and groaning from the roof since it wasn't undergoing thermal expansion and contraction every day.
But that just took it from abandoned shack status to maybe an E on the Energy Efficiency Scale. To go further would require a lot of renovation and money. I guess it would be worth doing, because we all do need to work together if we're going to get out of this climate emergency and make a decent world for the next generation. But I think I'm going to wait for a while, until there's more money in the bank and the memories of the last reno fade. Until then I do research thanks to the names and websites you mention in this video. So thanks again!
First I've heard of Passive House. Very interesting. Might just apply it
excellent video ..
Passive House costs only 5%-10% in the worst case scenario, it's a worthwhile endeavour to go for it or at least achieve the Low Energy cert if they cannot, it's worthwhile to get PH in cities where air pollution is high because your PH house is incredibly air tight
Good point about pollution!
Unfortunately it's not. Recuperation doesn't filter gasses, only pm is filtered.
I think the idea is that air is only coming in from one source instead of many little sources and it's changing very slowly, so less pollution accumulates inside.
If it's £1000/Square metre that's already a non stater on a house that's 120.5 square meters
@@waqasahmed939 Is this an existing house or a new house? My figure is for new PH buildings
mold can appear in insulated buildings also, if air circulation is not adequate. That is why heat recovery ventilation is required.
Interesting video. I would say that having to achieve EnerPHit standard is not needed to achieve a comfortable energy efficient house.
I am retrofitting an 1890 Victorian house and fitting high quality and expensive upgrades where needed but not all is expensive wooden triple glazed U0.85 wooden sash windows are though £850 m2. A competent DIYer can make a huge difference. Moisture needs managing. I dig out the solum to just above the top of the foundation then put down river bed gravel to 2 inches, a thick sheet plastic with 2 to 3 inches of concrete on top. After this I fit Rockwool between the joists held in place with woven garden fabric stapled in place - do not use PIR or PIU as they don't allow moisture to move through the floor. I also re-establish the airflow in the airbrick and up the wall space to the roof. This makes a big difference as moisture is virtually eliminated. I am doing videos but not yet got them on TH-cam. For a 5 bed semi on the west coast of Scotland we are paying £115 per month utility bills with gas heating. I expect this to get to £75 when I am finished the job. Includes c. £40 in electricity.
All internal and external Victorian features are being retained I have no intention of losing the beauty for an improved thermal performance.
Good DIY beats a contractor any day.
Great job describing EnerPHit, and the roles of designers and builders! Also remember the unsung quality control specialists, who make energy efficiency visible! From the principal of QC firm, Building Performance Architecture. :-)
The air tightness criteria will drive up the need to have better indoor air filtering, for both gases and particulates as indoor air pollution is already recognized as a health hazard.
Indeed. I had to buy an air filter to purify indoor air in my bedroom, as I live close to busy road with plenty of old diesels. Having airtight house woudl be beneficial, as knowing where air comes in would give a possibility to install filtering system on air intake. And then all rooms would have clean air.
My Wisconsin home is a passive solar and passive geothermal that I designed it can get over 80f when it is below zero outside if full sun. Homes designed to not freeze if no heat is used and it only gets down to 55f with no heat or sun for days.
Excellent video.
Thank you :-)
I'm wondering if tearing down my old house and building new passive one from scratch wouldn't turn out cheaper than retrofitting the old one...
Yeah, this type of retrofit seems better people buying a fixer upper at a deal, then integrating this into their remodel
@@deansmits006 Perhaps because it is a flawed model? Best wishes.
@@jimmycorkhill1390 What is the flaw in the model?
Sometimes a fixer upper should be a blowerupper. Depends on if it's just average, historical, quaint or has some special quality. Also depends on how well done the original build was. Perhaps full fast gut first, and determine when you see it's bones
@@MrMichiel1983 Trying to achieve a passive house standard. All the bells and whistles far outweigh the benefits. Like spending loads of money on super thick insulation to achieve the lowest U-value you can when half as much isnt that much different. Isnt it called the law of diminishing returns or summit like that? There is many simpler ways of achieving cheap comfortable living without getting scammed by the latest fad. Best wishes.
When retrofitting from a derelict house, the Passivhaus standard is the obvious choice, as it pay itself time and time again in the future. The problem is when retrofitting from a more or less efficient house, which can prove economically difficult to explain. First of all, the Passivhaus standard comfort is from the first day and for ever. Second, you can make a step by step retrofit, when you will gradually achieve the PH standard, according to the Passivhaus design plan.
Already in 2014 in the town where I live (Heerhugowaard Netherlands) a social neigbourhood built in the 1960's (about 300 houses) has been renovated to be as good as energie neutral. I do not know if these are now EnerPhit certified or something, but they have energy label A.
The houses are more or less cladded with thick isolation on the outside, floors isolated, new tripple pane windows and roofs heavy isolated and completely covered with solar panels. Gas boiler for heating and warm water replaced with air based heatpumps, heat recovery ventilation installed. The gas pipes have been removed so people also had to convert to electric cooking.
The rent has gone up a quite bit, but the savings in energy costs are tremendous and more than cover the rental raise. People living there are quite happy with the result, improvement in comfort and reduction of cost of living are much appreciated.. A side effect is the people have started to be more energy concious.
So it is possible and can be done cost effectively, sure there are more neighbourhoods renovated like this in The Netherlands by now.. Government goal is to get rid of natural gas by 2030..
My house is a bit newer (1991) well isolated, but hot water, heating and cooking I do with natural gas... I did replace my boiler about 7 years ago for a ultra efficient one, which already helped, and I installed 14 solar panels on my roof.. But to get rid of gas altogether requires a big investment, I cannot afford right now... Will transfer to electric coocking though, and plan to install a Quooker hot/cold water tap in my kitchen, which also reduces the gas usage a littlebit....
Only about 50 meters from my house a a hot water pipe is installed a few years ago, as expansion of a "heat net" where heat of a local waste burning plant is used to heat new homes, which also works very well. My brother lives in such a home, and is quite happy with that. What I hope for is that the local government will offer connection with that heat net to my and my neighbour's houses, and this way get rid of gas, and reduce energy costs... This heat net is very energy efficient and is powered by our garbage!
Anyway, step by step we will get there, and with a little help of our governments we could accelerate the transition to energy neutral homes and using all renewable energy.
www.bamwonen.nl/nieuws/2017/3/230e-metamorfose-naar-energieneutrale-woning-woonwaard
Where do you think all the C02 goes created by burning refuse?
@@b.mnicholson4269 Good point, but its all about efficiency, its really the last bits that are left over after everything that is pulled out for recycling, that is burned.. recently they have started a project to catch the CO2 and use this in greenhouses in the area to grow crops and flowers... Normaly farmers burned natural gas to generate CO2 (and heat)
The plant is originally built to generate electricity from burning garbage and wasted wood, and that is still the main goal of that plant, but instead of dumping the excess heat overboard, it is now used usefully by heating greenhouses and homes in a big area around the plant.
At least it is much better than just burning fuel (natural gas).
I have an old Swiss chalet that I've refurbished with insulation on the inside, underfloor heating and a ground source heat pump. It's not up to europhit standards, but it's warm and dry and quite inexpensive to heat. The biggest difference is the GSHP, using between 1/4 and a 1/3 of the KW/hrs to heat the place. A friend of mine from England loves to visit in the winter as the house is so warm and dry compared to his 50's built UK home.
It sounds wonderful. Out of curiousity how large is the GSHP? In the UK land is a scarcity for many so having first hand experience is useful for planning the possible with the if only.
@@igavinwood If you mean the machine it's about 1.5m high by 60cm x 60cm. It has a hot water tank that's slightly bigger than that. The slinky's in the garden take up about 10m square. A bore hole takes up almost no space and is even more efficient.
@@davidellis2021 Thank you. Helpful info
I still remember when "double glazing" was the new big thing...
ikr.
Depending on where you live double glazing is fine, but in some harsher climates there is a good return on triple glazing and additional insulation.
And vinyl instead of aluminum frames.
And now double glazing is pretty much the standard of the industry. Technology improves; the future has a positive bias.
3G only costs about 10% more than 2G but has 35% lower heat loss and dramatically better comfort due to higher internal surface temperature (above 14C when -4C outside so no condensation) and no draughts. If you are replacing windows you really should be doing 3G these days. Modern 3G is 2.5 times lower heat loss than pre-2000 2G.
I am one of the lucky ones that is building his energy neutral house from scratch. A challenge it is..
I see it as gimmicky nonsense and a way for the scammers to make much money. Building houses is being made far too over complicated. Best wishes.
@@jimmycorkhill1390 It actually saves a lot of money, depending on where you live. Yet, I do agree one always has to be careful for overpriced services. It's also not that complicated, really.
@@MrMichiel1983 It depends on what is meant and involved in the energy neutral/passive house standards. A cob walled earth roof house could be extremely cheap and efficient achieving energy neutrality whatever that really means. On the otherhand, a design using lots of complicated toxic materials from around the world with seals and barriers and lots of stuff to fail at some point doesnt sound much energy neutral to me. I suppose a bit like the modern car, over complicated and far more damaging to the environment than the older models once taking build and materials into account. Best wishes.
@@jimmycorkhill1390 Classic straw man argument. 😉
@@christinearmington Id suggest that that is a term used by those that dont have an argument and probably dont really know what it means. Best wishes.
Well done - clear explanation for engineers and novices alike. Keep up the good work. We live in Ireland and our government, for all it's faults, is way ahead in this area.
Thanks for the mention :)
Happy Belated Birthday David!
Thank you. I appreciate that :-)
Check with your local energy provider. Many of them offer energy efficiency audits and some provide discounts on products or services. My provider offered a free air blower door test and recommendations for leak sealing. They even paid 50% of the bill to get the sealing work done. There are also many small businesses that do energy audits and make recommendations.
I designed and built my home in Virginia in 2007 before these standards were created, back when the term “Green Construction” started. Proof of concept to build a “High Performance” home for the same as conventional. Energy use currently is 21.6 kWh/sqmeter/yr with air change of 0.12 as tested. I expect to change the heat pump the end of the year will bring it closer to Passive level. What would happen if all homes were to list their energy consumption (kWh/sqft/yr or kWh/m2/yr) when listed for sale? It is the same as efficiency rating of a car. Which one would you purchase? The leaky oil burner or the one with low energy bills?
21.6 kWh/sqmeter/yr is passive level (although note that the floor area defined for PH is very specific about which parts of the house count (internal living areas, so not walls or stairs or landings or cupboards or areas under 1.5m high) so it's much lower than the total floor area, which puts up the simple 'energy per m2 per year) number significantly. (e.g my house is 120m2 for both floors, but 96.5m2 'floor area' for PH calculation terms - ie 19% smaller).
Having just had some improvements done to our house, the biggest problem was the contractors doing a poor job. It felt as if they were allways trying to cut corners and were not open to doing things differeny to the way they hade done it before. Until the workforce is educated and cares, it will be an uphill struggle. In the UK people do not go into the building industry because they were a high achiever at school.
'Until... ...cares'. 'Until the workforce is properly trained and managed'. The 'very best' education money can buy in the UK, turn out leaders of commerce, industry and politics, who cut corners in their respective professions and truly do not care. People are motivated to do a good job by good management/supervision, rarely because they truly care and it has very little to do with how well you worked at school. Another thought...In Ireland (and USA) going into the trades is fairly well respected, much more so than in the UK and this probably helps to promote pride in their work.
Thanks a lot 😍🙏🏽👍🏽
That was excellent in all respects.👍
Thank you for this great video. Also mention the importance of solar screens or overhang to prevent overheating. I ‘ve been working as a constructor to make low energy houses and passive houses airtight since 2005. I lost count on how many projects have been done. Important to realize you can plan retrofits in phases. Roof is most important since most energy is lost there in old houses. Good roof insulation should be airtight inside with a vapor brake or screen and windtight outside with a vapor open water draining layer outside. Bioecological materials are to be preferred. Sloped roofs generally have less problems to use natural insulation materials.
What about outer roofing material? I keep hearing reflective and white, but I never ever see it
@@V.Hansen. It does exist, in Europe. The name of the product or producer escapes me now. Perhaps Unilin or something. What I know the outer part is white and the inner substance is in fact ecologic
This can be done bit by bit with the savings generated by one project freeing up cash for the next in a positive upward spiral. We have a historic wooden house from 1830. Since 2003 we have slowly: 1) insulated it (none before), 2) reconstructed the windows to Low E double paned (they were all single paned), 3) rebuilt the roof with more insulation and sealing, 4)added 14Kw PV system, 5) added daylighting solar tubes to the N side of the house, 6) added electric heating to our bathroom 7) we are converting our appliance to electric as they meet the end of their lifespan and we just got an induction cooktop. None of this is revolutionary, yet we are able to cover all of our electricity needs including our 2 EVs with 15% excess that we need to sop up with our planned air source heat pump in our next phase. We reduced our carbon foot print of our house by 80% with more to come!! All of this while not disrupting the design of our historic Carpenters Gothic home.
What a great video, thank you very much! (from a former Architect)
Thank you Gracinda. I'm glad you enjoyed it :-)
Very interesting.
I live in a G rated house, possibly an H. It's not an abandoned house but there are walls that have fallen in and note worthy soft spots that have developed in the ceiling panels. Every window leaks and that is from the day they were installed. There isn't a contractor alive who will or would have signed on for making repairs. At this time the costs involved in renovating are considerably higher than they had to be were willing tradesmen available when they were called upon. We have given up. This winter I didn't bother to try and access and turn on the furnace, it wasn't running well last year and has a frail rust shell between the fire and the house. We heated with our electric oven until it burnt out and then were forced to buy more space heaters. It has not been warm inside since it was pleasant outside. For whatever reason we had no pipes break or freeze up this year which was surprising. We always have some pipes freeze in winter.
I hate watching these. This all seems out of reach and with the considerable scaling of products now as well as the costs I can affirm the belief that home improvements are destined for those who can afford them and not for anyone desperate to save their money. It's very unlikely that the few property renters will be compelled by law or them selves to make costly enhancements to their buildings. I can't even imagine right now having our home as it was when we first moved in. So these new standards, all proprietary technology locked up in patents and developed with secret processes or limited to a low scale production means that those with low means and low funding have to manage with old fashioned products. It's either that or do it your self and bend the rules to meet a better standard.
There is no talk of small houses. Not tiny houses, not shacks. Small houses. Not double garage four bedroom three bathroom extra linen closets and two living rooms with a rec room in the basement. Small houses. Houses you can afford and houses you can grow. You can't purchase small houses because those aren't profitable. However a small house is something an individual and certainly a family could hope to pay for and actually own before they retire or die. We live in a small house. What a shame it likely uses more power to heat than a significantly larger house either new or old.
Hi, thanks for your great videos ! I have a question for you: living in a wine region in France, I wonder if you ''have a think'' about this thing the wine-growers do in spring, when the temperature are below freezing in the morning. They lit numerous little fires, fed on straw, that make a lot of smoke. It's really, REALLY effective in creating a ''fog'' all over the valley. I wonder :
1. How much effective it is to keep the vines from freezing (there's a small fire every 100 meters approximately around the perimeter of the vineyard)
2. Is the ''fog'' have an effect on the temperature, if yes, how does it work ?
3. What would be the environmental impact of such a practice on the climate ? For one day ? But if it's freezing for the whole spring?
Thanks for considering an answer, directly or on a video.
Brilliant!
Very timely, as I am having an air-source heat pump being installed, by Menai Heating. This is via the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, which means that I have to pay the costs initially but they are refunded to me over 7 years.
In turns out that I can also get a grant for insulation, which means interior cladding in practice. Everything get removed from the external walls, including the skirting boards! 50mm board is attached to the wall, then everything put back! I hope.
That's obviously inconvenient and I will have to vacate the house for a week, but I am assured that it really makes a difference. I'll have plenty of redecorating to do of course but I am retired now, so that will help to keep me busy!
Thanks.
PS My bottle gas bill is an unbelievable £500/month!
You got a leak on that gas? My total bills are less than 150euros a year on gas bottles for the cooker and 600euros on wood a year for heating and hot water. My house is poorly insulated and I dont always heat the upper floors that I dont use much. My elec is off grid solar which has been great but a challenge. Best wishes.
@@jimmycorkhill1390 I have made that point a few times, but I have received no response or assistance. I think that I am entitled to some, frankly, as I am now 65, living on my own. I'm tempted to name the company but I am not sure that would really help. These are difficult times for everyone. Thanks.
Good on you Richard. An example to us all. I hope the grant money comes through without delay.
@@Number_Free Hope it all goes well for you. Best wishes.
Thanks for the good vibes!
Thanks 👍😎
I did some upgrade for my summer house to possibly become my permanent home some day.
Insulated 400mm in attic, 90mm in walls with broken cold bridge (45 vertical and 45mm horizontal), all new windows and doors, air to air heatpump. Plans this year 5kW solar cell to direct heating. Plans for future, multifunction tank, air to water heatpump, wood furness and add more solar cells.
You live in the Arctic? With all that I wouldnt need a wood furness. Best wishes.
Vacuum insulation panels, provide a high R value, so are very useful for retrofit insulation, where space / height is restricted.
The problem with retrofitting is the cost vs the savings - a retrofit of my house would take over 100 years to pay for itself. Even fitting double-glazed windows doesn't work since by the time they get close to paying for themselves they wear out and need replacing again. I think something like loft insulation works though - relatively inexpensive to install and doesn't wear out.
Rather than a retrofit standard for 'as close to perfection as possible' we need one that shows us how far to go to give us the best return on our investment. From a carbon footprint perspective, this should include the idea that wasting green energy is fine i.e. it might be better to pay for more green energy production that we can allow to escape from our house rather than pay to keep dirty energy in our house. Obviously paying to keep green energy in a house is pointless in terms of carbon footprint, but would still help in areas where it saved money.
this is being heavily subsidized in Italy, as it also double as a booster for the building industry (I'm talking about rebates ranging from 50% to 110%! I've never ever seen this many renovations going on)
Passive House standards are something that is necessary to reduce pollution, make life easier and more comfortable for those who burn wood (and similar fuels) for heating, and pays itself out as time goes by. One of my neighbors says that by adding 8 cm of insulation (where he previously had none) to his house has cut his heating expenses in half.
Whether it is required by law or not, I am taking steps to greatly improve the energy efficiency in my house. Even though my house is very new (2.5 years), it only has 5 cm of styrofoam insulation on the external wall, which is insufficient for the northern part of Bosnia I live in. Though we're not part of the EU yet, I am striving to get it at least up to their standards and possibly even better, financial constraints permitting. The EU standard for my area requires about 12 cm of styrofoam insulation, and I will add more to it soon.
I have already installed some solar panels on my roof, giving me more than enough hot water on sunny days, and covering basic energy needs.
My plans also include triple pane windows (double pane now), heat pump(s) and heat exchange/recovery from dumped warm/hot water and ventilated air. But first, since a wood-burning stove is my main source of heat, I plan to add a spiraling tube in my chimney which would automatically bring in warmed air from outside, instead of having the cold air sucked in through the cracks in doors and windows, which both reduces efficiency and makes it less comfortable.
An excellent (as usual) review of what is involved retrofitting a house in a northern climate. The only thing I'd like to see added would be active energy harvesting with solar PV or hot water (or air) systems which can supply large chunks of energy demand over much of the year.
PVT panels or hybrid panels combine photovoltaic and thermal energy generation. They can double as air-sourced heat pumps (having no external unit).
Several years ago Building Science Corporation did a test to see how two identical houses built from scratch and side by side performed with two principle of insulation. One was sealed with caulk and gaskets with no insulation. The other was insulated but with no air sealing. The winner by far was the caulked house. Air exchange is more cost effective than insulation. If one does both, it is much better. BSC is in Massachusetts.
Great video Dave. Would love to see more on this / an update. I think upgrading existing housing stock is so important. I think a huge part of the green narrative that's missing is its potential to reduce fuel poverty / income inequality if managed and rolled out right.
Given we're in the midst of a pandemic I'm surprised the need for a good flow of fresh air didn't receive much attention.
MVHR systems provide the fresh air required
@@Jack_of_all... Not sure they do. They would supply enough fresh air to meet the need for oxygen and removal of CO2 but you need a breeze to blow airborne particles carrying viruses away. If you want to recirculate air then you need to include sterilization in the system.
@@robroysyd Modern systems don't recirculate, they exchange heat with fresh outside air.
@@MrMichiel1983 Correct, I've seen the heat exchangers used for that. The problem seems to be there's not enough airflow to blow particles away before someone inhales them.
Another fine contribution. You remind me somewhat of potholer54. That's a compliment.
hi dave,
still dont understand why we are still building up instead of down...
we will have to support a lot more difficult climatic conditions,
mega storms ,tidal surges ect...
Interesting concept. You could well be right!
because up means you dont have to deal with water nearly as much.
- ground humidity
- no windows for daylight is terrible for the health
- even a small flood means death since you are trapped
- no natural air circulation
- earth is usually below the temperature you would want your house at, so you need constant heating
- building wall that resist the ground pressure is more expensive and prone to failure since the walls cant dry from the outside
It still costs a lot of money to dig. There are things like electric and phone and data lines that would be better underground but the cost would be enormous.
Very interesting topic. What frightens me the most is the modern insulation materials develop an enormous amount of toxic smoke when burning. Also like you point out most of the work gets covered so we’re in need of meticulous people performing that work.
Rockwool manufacture generates a lot of toxic smoke, but dense-packed cellulose?
Hi Claire. There are many insulation materials now that contain more organic materials and are also flame retardant. It's all about cost though, of course. That's why governments need to wade in with very strong subsidies and incentives.
Passive house retrofit is 1.0 air changes per hour at 50 Pascals.
New construction Passive house is 0.6 ACH at 50 Pascals.
here in greece there are programms running funded by the eu that contribute up to 85% to such endeavours, but as soon as they are announced, the applications are closed within hours
I was planning a deep fit, started getting quotes and planning what to do, neighbours landlord outright refusing any scaffolding and access on there property and other such complaints I have cancelled the project and decided to tart up and sell my home to find something more suitable, or just rent instead. So many hurdles
I didn't do a "deep retrofit" in terms of the paperwork, but in 2018 I converted my attic and installed a heat recovery system as part of that. The conversion was done with air tightness membranes and the insulation was drastically increased. I had lower heating bills even though the floor space had gone up my 50%.
I'm currently adding a detached garage. It has 150mm of cavity insulation, 100mm of ground insulation and will have decent attic insulation. My oil boiler is being replaced with a heat pump which will heat the garage via underfloor heating and use the existing radiators in the house to heat it. The garage roof has been fitted with 6.5kW of solar panels.
I live in Ireland so seems unfortunate that I hadn't looked into that grant. I'll get grants for the solar, battery and heat pump though.
Oh, next projects will likely involve bead insulation into my house cavity and changing the windows to triple glazed. External insulation might happen but I'm also looking at using more trees and shrubs to shelter the house from wind.
One of the worst heat sinks in traditional N American stick house construction is the wooden studs used for walls. These coupled with a sheet of OSB that then gets covered with thin wraps then vinyl siding is a weak insulated result. The studs need a make over ie split in two with an air gap in the middle to break the heat path loss route. Maybe it’s time to look at recycled plastic studs with honeycomb interiors.
It would probably be easier to just sheath the entire house in insulation to eliminate the bulk of the thermal bridging(even R5 foam panels would make a difference)
I've seen an alternative or two on the traditional stud. External sheathing is a simple fix for now
I work as an Energy Assessor and am (now) a Retrofit Assessor. The UK government has a target of deep-retrofitting 500,000 homes per year, but it is difficult to see how this can be achieved with the sort of housing that needs improving around here - individually-owned Victorian terraces. All the owners that I've spoken to immediately rule out exterior wall insulation as it will impact the looks and character of the property. 4-6" of cladding also impacts the roof, as the eaves aren't wide enough to cover this. Interior cladding is also impractical as losing that much interior space may not be an option, especially if the staircase is next to the exterior wall. The obvious target for a deep retrofit is social housing, where a single owner can re-clad an entire block of houses.
Fitting MVHR is all very well, but these systems need to be maintained and this is not always the case - a friend of mine had a contract with a council to service the MVHR systems in all their social housing, but it wasn't possible to service them all as many tenants simply wouldn't cooperate to allow access.
Yes, retrofitting is important; but of course it must be done in addition to a rapid transition to renewables, not as a transition delaying tactic (as they unfortunately try to do here in Australia (Federally)).
It's a great idea, but it is SO huge! And what about blocks of flats? Do you know how many council estates have a central gas boiler for every property on the estate?! Also, we are looking at 'sealing' a property to keep heat in, yet we are getting warmer, and in less than 50 years, we will be looking to cool our properties. If our properties are totally insulated, the cheapest option will be air conditioning, with all the C02 they produce!
Thank you for the humble none emotive manner in which you deliver your highly informative content. You certainly do encourage us all to realise that there are many things that can be done now with out having to surrender to the hopelessness we find in so many mainstream media articles. You should start to 'just have a think' about creating content for school children who are being left depressed, despondent and angry by the material they currently are being exposed to. Hope is by far the best motivator. Fear leads to dysfunctional behaviours.
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