Considerations on the Implementation of the Passive House Concept in South-Eastern Europe (Romania)

Abstract

The passive house (PH) concept has been developed in Germany since 1991. In the following years, the concept spread out successfully in other Western and Central European countries with similar climate. Do the design solutions developed in Germany ensure the fulfillment of PH standard requirements when implemented in areas with different climates, such as South-Eastern Europe? This paper provides a preliminary answer. First, general climate conditions are compared for 22 towns in Germany and Romania, respectively. The main conclusion is that climate data cannot provide enough information to decide whether the existing German PH design solutions will perform similarly well in Romania. Further analysis is done to estimate the energetic performance of a prototype passive building when located in any of the 22 towns of Germany and Romania. The energetic performance is computed by using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software developed by the Passive House Institute of Darmstadt. The prototype passive building is AMVIC PH built in 2009 in Bragadiru (near Bucharest, Romania). It appears that the empirical design solutions developed in Germany may be relaxed (for example, the thermal insulation of the envelope may be reduced) when implemented for latitudes lower than 45° North. This is mainly due to the more abundant solar radiation in winter at these latitudes.

Keywords:

• Passive house
• Design solutions
• South-Eastern Europe
• Romania
• Specific heating demand

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank Dr. Ruxandra Crutescu (Passive House Institute, Bragadiru, Romania) for providing information about the AMVIC PH design and Ms. Nadine Laaser (Technical University of Berlin) for help and assistance about the usage of PHPP.