Taking Another Step Towards A Cleaner Tomorrow

Panda If you are a home or business owner looking to add new doors or windows to your property, you may be hearing a lot about the benefits of passive houses to save on energy costs and reduce your project’s ecological footprint. But what exactly is passive design and how can you incorporate it into your project?

Passive house (or Passivhaus) is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building that integrates into the architectural design of a building. It originated from a conversation between Bo Adamson and Wolfgang Feist in 1988, but much of the research was based on building techniques used by the North American builders who created low-energy homes in response to the oil embargo of the 1970s. The first Passivhaus residences were built in Darmstadt in 1990 – four town homes designed for private clients. The Passivhaus-Institut was founded in 1996 in Darmstadt and soon the design standards were incorporated into projects worldwide. Today Passivhaus remains popular in many German-speaking countries and has gained a lot of popularity in the United States.

The principle techniques used to achieve the Passive House energy standards are: passive solar design, energy efficient landscaping, superinsulation, advanced window technology, airtightness, ventilation, space heating, and efficient lighting and electrical appliances. There are a lot of different elements to take into consideration, but the payoff is well worth the effort; buildings constructed in this manner tend to have a homogenous interior temperature, are slow to change temperature, and have minimal indoor air pollution from VOCs.

If you are interested in bringing in elements of Passive House design into your project, one of our thermally broken systems is a great place to start. Each family of products has a thermally broken option with a frame specially designed to reduce heat transfer with the option of double-paned or argon glass for extra insulation. Each of our doors are custom made so they can be used in a new build or retrofitted into your existing space.

To learn more about our energy efficient thermally broken door options, we invite you to find a Panda Dealer near you.