Active building
Whole system design
Active ("passive") buildings are highly energy efficient and have a specific energy demand that is 75 % lower than current, newly built buildings. Furthermore, low embedded energy buildings can reduce 25% on CO2 emissions caused by the construction of buildings.
The extra costs for better insulation, air tightness, superwindows, heat recovery ventilation, and virtual absence of heating and cooling systems, pay off. The extra benefits like good indoor air quality and extraordinary good thermal comfort are added as a bonus. The energy sources of the future will be even more expensive - that holds for wind, solar and biomass energy. It makes sense, to utilize these renewable sources - at the other hand, it makes sense to utilize the improved efficiency as well, like it can be done with Passive Houses.
Several large-scale passive building offices already exist in Europe today. These combine high comfort with an up-market atmosphere, and economical construction with extremely low operational costs.