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Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151171 www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol

CEPHEUS results: measurements and occupants satisfaction provide evidence for Passive Houses being an option for sustainable building
Jurgen Schniedersa,, Andreas Hermelinkb
b

Passive House Institute, Rheinstr. 44/46, D-64283 Darmstadt, Germany University of Kassel, Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR), Kurt-Wolters-Str. 3, D-34109 Kassel, Germany Available online 5 October 2004

Abstract Passive houses offer extended living comfort with only 1520% of the space heating demand of conventional new buildings while the extra costs of this standard are only about 10% of the total building costs. In the rst part of this paper, detailed measurements for 11 Passive House projects with more than 100 dwelling units from the EU-funded demonstration project CEPHEUS (Cost Efcient Passive Houses as EUropean Standards) are presented. All projects exhibit extraordinarily low space heat consumptions. Compared with ordinary, newly erected buildings, 80% of the space heat consumption could be saved. The total primary energy consumption (including household electricity) was less than 50% of that of conventional new buildings. The measurements show that the buildings also offer comfortable indoor conditions in both summer and winter. Several social research studies revealed that the users are well pleased with their homes. The second part of the paper focuses on low-income tenants satisfaction in the worlds rst multi-story Passive Houses in Kassel, Germany. This building contrasts sharply with the standard Passive House, occupied by its owners. A 2.5 year study was conducted from spring of 2000 to autumn of 2002. The development of opinions, attitudes, behaviour, and satisfaction over time could be recorded. The building is a clear success, the tenants satisfaction is high. It is concluded that this building type fulls the conditions of sustainability in social, ecological and economic respects and should therefore be disseminated on a larger scale. To this end, the last part of the paper describes the development of the Passive House standard in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, from the rst demonstration project in 1991 to about 3500 dwelling units today. The prerequisites for this development are analysed. Finally, the authors give their view about the political possibilities for pushing Passive Houses into the market as well as for stimulating a market pull for this comfortable and energy efcient building type. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Passive House; Energy efciency in buildings; User satisfaction

1. Passive Houses make factor 10 come true An important brick for building up a sustainable future is housing. In Germany about 22% of total end use energy is for space heating in residential buildings. As shown in Fig. 1, an immense savings potential exists here. To full the demanded energy service snug and
Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 6151 82 699 0; fax: +49 6151 82 699 11. E-mail addresses: juergen.schnieders@passiv.de (J. Schnieders), hermelink@usf.uni-kassel.de (A. Hermelink).

warm at, an annual useful energy input of 220 kWh per square metre living area is needed for the building stock whereas newly erected houses need about 70 kWh/ (m2a) and Passive Houses economise with 15 kWh/ (m2a)less than 10% of the building stock average. This shows that Factor 10 can be realised compared to the building stock and Factor 4 (Weizsacker et al., 1997) even compared to the new legal standard that was introduced in Germany at the beginning of 2002. The Passive House standard offers a cost-efcient way of minimizing the energy demand of new buildings in

0301-4215/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2004.08.049

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Fig. 1. Space heat demand of residential buildings (Comparison of different (German) building standards).

accordance with the global principle of sustainability, while at the same time improving the comfort experienced by building occupants. It thus creates the basis on which it is possible to meet the remaining energy demand of new buildings completely from renewable sourceswhile keeping within the bounds set by the limited availability of renewables and the affordability of extra costs. Thus Passive Houses might contribute a signicant share in building a sustainable future. To realise the necessary market penetration, two key factors have to be considered:

Convincing evidence from pilot projects regarding measurement results of real consumption and occupants satisfaction. Both aspects will be referred to in this article. In the rst part, results from the European project CEPHEUS regarding measurement results are pointed out whereas the second part is dedicated to Passive House occupants experience. Establishing the Passive House standard as main item in a set of urgent policy measures. This aspect will be examined in the section about market success and sustainability.

distribution system. To permit this, it is essential that the buildings heating load does not exceed 10 W/m2. The small heating load is roughly equivalent with an annual space heat requirement of 15 kWh/(m2a). Passive Houses thus need about 80% less space heat than new buildings designed to the various national building codes valid in 1999 when the CEPHEUS projects were planned and built. The small space heat requirement can be met by heating the supply air in the ventilation system. The approach is cost-efcient because, following the principle of simplicity, it relies on optimizing those components of a building which are necessary in any case: the building envelope, the windows and the automatic ventilation system (which is expedient anyway for hygienic reasons). Improving the efciency of these components to the point at which a separate heat distribution system is no longer needed yields savings which contribute to nancing the extra costs of improvement. The standard has been named Passive House because the passive use of incidental heat gains delivered externally by solar irradiation through the windows and provided internally by the heat emissions of appliances and occupantsessentially sufces to keep the building at comfortable indoor temperatures throughout the heating period. It is a part of the Passive House philosophy that efcient technologies are also used to minimize the other sources of energy consumption in the building, notably electricity for household appliances. The target of the CEPHEUS project was to keep the total primary energy requirement for space heating, domestic hot water and household appliances below 120 kWh/(m2a). This is lower by a factor of 24 than the specic consumption levels of new buildings designed to the standards presently applicable across Europe. 2.2. What makes a building a Passive House? The various components of the Passive House approach can be classied under the following basic elements. The rst three (superinsulation, heat recovery and passive solar gain) are crucial to the Passive House concept. To fully minimize environmental impacts, however, the other two are necessary (electrical efciency) or expedient (meeting remaining energy demand with renewables). 2.2.1. Superinsulation The basic idea of the Passive Houseto reduce heat losses to the point at which internal and solar gains render a separate heating system superuousrequires as a rst step an excellent thermal insulation of exterior building elements. The U-values of the exterior building elements generally range between 0.1 and 0.15 W/(m2K).

2. Introduction to Passive Houses 2.1. Denition of the Passive House standard The term Passive House (which is only distantly related to passive solar) refers to a construction standard that can be met using a variety of technologies, designs and materials. It is basically a renement of the low energy house standard. Passive Houses are buildings which assure a comfortable indoor climate in summer and in winter without needing a conventional heat

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Fig. 2. Left: Wall insulation at the gable wall in the CEPHEUS sub-project 01-Hannover. Right: Thermal bridge reduction at the base point in 02Kassel.

The types of construction that can be used are highly diverse: massive, lightweight and mixed constructions were used in the CEPHEUS sub-projects. Transmission heat losses include not only the heat ows through the regular building elements, they also occur at corners, edges, junctions and penetrations. Excessive losses at such thermal bridges must be avoided. Fortunately, this is possible solely through geometrical analysis without costly multidimensional heat ow computations. The method is explained in (Feist, 1999; Feist and Schnieders, 1999). Examples for superinsulation and the reduction of thermal bridges are shown in Fig. 2. Growing importance attaches to the airtightness of building envelopes. Leaking envelopes lead to a number of problems that need to be prevented: Condensation water damage, draughts, layers of cold air right above the oor level, elevated energy consumption. For example, typical n50-values (air changes per hour at a pressure difference of 50 Pa between inside and outside) of the UK building stock may be about 1214 h1 , buildings without ventilation system according to current German regulations must have air leakage rates of 3 h1. A Passive House has a maximum n50 of 0.6 h1. These values can be achieved with all types of construction; measured values for varying construction types are given in Table 1 below. The principles for achieving this excellent airtightness were set out in a special CEPHEUS building physics guideline (Peper, 1999) (cf. also Fig. 3). 2.2.2. Combining efcient heat recovery with supplementary supply air heating Passive houses have a continuous supply of fresh air, optimized to ensure occupant comfort. The ow is regulated to deliver precisely the quantity required for excellent indoor air quality. Typical air change rates are about 0.250.4 h1. Higher air change rates would result in uncomfortably dry indoor air. It is permissible to heat the supply air to ca. 55 1C when required by means of a non-electrical heating element downstream from the heat recovery unit. Higher temperatures could lead to dust carbonization in the supply air and possibly in or

on the supply air ducts, i.e. dust particles would smoulder on hot surfaces and produce undesired smells. A simple calculation shows that this approach limits the heating loads in Passive Houses to 10 W/m2. To bring the space heat requirement down below 15 kWh/(m2a), structural measures alone do not sufce in central Europe. It is only by means of high-efciency Passive House heat recovery systems that the target can be achieved with acceptable structural measures given the current state of the art. Heat recovery effectiveness ratios of at least 75% are required; as eld measurements conducted within CEPHEUS have shown, these ratios can indeed be achieved and even exceeded by means of counterow heat exchangers (Fig. 3). Additional fresh air preheating in a subsoil heat exchanger is possible, which further reduces the need for supplementary air heating. However, high overall efciency is only achieved if the reduction of ventilation heat losses is not at the price of high electric power input. Electricity-saving fans and low pressure losses in the system are essential. The ventilation systems are generally driven by highly efcient direct current motors and consume an average 0.4 W/(m3/h) or less. They can achieve annual performance factors (ratio between heat saved and electricity consumed) of 1015. The ventilation system may be turned off in summer. 2.2.3. Passive solar gain Efciency potentials having been exploited, the passive gain of incoming solar energy through glazing dimensioned to provide sufcient daylight covers about one third of the minimized heat demand of the house. In a Passive House, windows need to permit net solar gains, above and beyond their normal lighting and (in summer) ventilation functions. The preconditions for this are: low heat losses through the window, suitable glazing; and, if possible, southward orientation and low degree of shading. Nevertheless, Passive Houses do not depend on building sites which permit large solar gains. Because the Passive House no longer needs a separate space heating system, a further requirement is that occupant comfort directly in front of the window must

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154 Project 01-Hannover 02-Kassel 03-Gothenburg 04-Egg 05-Horbranz 06-Wolfurt 07-Dornbirn 08-Gnigl 09-Kuchl 10-Hallein 11-Horn 12-Steyr 13-Luzern 14-Rennes Construction type Mixed Solid Timber Solid Solid Mixed Timber Timber Mixed Mixed Mixed Solid Timber Mixed J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151171 In 09-Kuchl, a large internal leakage is probably the reason for the high n50-value. For these projects, only values from preliminary airtightness measurements were available at the time of analysis. In the meantime, remedial work has been carried out; however, new measurement results are not available.

be ensured despite there being no radiator. From this, the need for an overall window U-value of less than 0.8 W/(m2K) can be derived for Middle European climate (cf. e.g. (Schnieders and Feist, 1999)). This value can only be achieved with triple low-emissivity glazing lled with heavy noble gases. Such glazing achieves, depending upon the ll gas and the coating, Uvalues down to 0.5 W/(m2K) and a total solar energy transmittance (g-value) of 5060%. Even in the short heating season of the Passive House, from November to March, the energy balance of such glazing is positive. In contrast, double low-e glazing has net losses in the core winter period. Window frames for Passive Houses need good thermal insulation. The thermal bridge at the edge seal is minimized by using stainless-steel or plastic spacers and by means of increasing the depth to which the glazing is inserted within the sash/frame. Today, a lot of manufacturers, mainly in Germany and Austria, supply thermally insulated frames with U-values below 0.8 W/ (m2K) (cf. Fig. 3). Correct installation is necessary, too. If the windows are positioned within the insulation plane of the thermal envelope and that insulation overlaps the window frame as far as possible, the thermal bridge loss coefcient of installation can be zero. Otherwise, the overall U-value may increase by up to 50%. 2.2.4. Electric efciency means efcient appliances In Passive Houses, the heat requirement for space heating is reduced massively; the requirement for domestic hot water is also reduced by efcient technologies. Under these circumstances, the household electricity requirement is the largest element of nal energy demand for the dwelling; if it remains at the levels commonplace today, it is about twice as high as the energy demand for heating. The task within CEPHEUS was therefore to develop tools by which households can be equipped with high-efciency electric appliances. Through tting the Passive Houses with efcient household appliances, hot water connections for washing machines and dishwashers, airing cabinets and compact uorescent lamps, electricity consumption is reduced considerably compared to the average housing stock, without any loss of comfort or convenience. All building services are designed to operate with maximum efciency. High-efciency appliances are often no more expensive than average ones, or pay back any additional cost through electricity savings. 2.2.5. Meeting the remaining energy demand with renewables Cost-optimized solar thermal systems can meet about 4060% of the entire low-temperature heat demand of a Passive House. The low remaining energy demand moreover makes something possible which would

Table 1 Measured volume-adjusted n50 building leakage indices for the CEPHEUS projects as built

Mean n50 [h1]

0.30

0.35

0.31

0.51

0.47

0.33

1.1

0.97

2.2a

0.58

0.61

1.6b

0.57

11b

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Fig. 3. Airtight and thermal-bridge-free junction at the eaves in 11-Horn; high-efciency heat recovery unit in 01-Hannover; insulated window frame made from aluminiumpolyurethane foamwood.

otherwise be unaffordable, and for which available supply would not sufce: over the annual balance, the remaining energy consumption (for space heating, domestic hot water and household electricity) may be offset completely by renewable sources, making the operation phasewhich is most important for a buildings life cycle impactin a Passive House fully neutral in terms of both primary energy and climate. Within CEPHEUS, this has been realized in the 01Hannover sub-projectat prices within the normal market range: the houses were built at construction costs (excluding real estate and VAT) of 932 h/m2 living area, whereas low energy houses at the same location were sold at about 1200 h/m2. The required share of a wind turbine was available at a cost of 1250 h per dwelling unit (average 117 m2).

Part of CEPHEUS was a comprehensive measurement project for the determination of energy performance indices and thermal comfort. Unfortunately, some projects have not yet been occupied during the measurement phase. Consequently, results from the continuous measurements are not available for a sufciently long period in all projects. Nonetheless, measurements from more than 100 dwelling units in 11 sub-projects in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were evaluated. In the following, the most important results from the common evaluation are presented. 3.1. Airtightness testing In all CEPHEUS building projects, the remaining air leakage rates were measured by means of building airtightness tests in accordance with EN 13829. The results documented in Table 1 show that the remaining air leakage rates ranged between 0.30 and 0.61 h1 in 9 CEPHEUS projects. In most of the other projects, a better result would be possible by means of carrying out remedial work on the junctions where air inltration was identied. Wherever no rigorous airtightness design was presented (particularly in 14Rennes) the results were far poorer. CEPHEUS has thus proven in practice that the high levels of airtightness requisite for the Passive House standard can be achieved in all construction types in a reproducible manner, that the recommendations made in (Peper, 1999) provide an excellent basis for airtightness, and that rigorous planning of airtightness details is the key to success. 3.2. Energy performance indices In order to render the energy indices of the projects comparable, a uniform procedure for calculating treated oor area (TFA) was dened. The TFA essentially comprises the sum of the oor areas of all residential

3. Results of the CEPHEUS project Within the CEPHEUS project, 221 housing units were built to Passive House standards in ve European countries. The scientic evaluation of the operation should demonstrate technical feasibility (in terms of achieving the targeted energy performance indices) at low extra cost (target: compensation of extra investment cost by cost savings in operation) for a variety of different buildings, constructions and designs implemented by architects and developers in several European countries. Investor-purchaser acceptance and user behaviour under real-world conditions should be studied. The opportunity for both the lay and expert public to experience the Passive House standard hands-on at several sites in Europe was to be created. Finally, CEPHEUS should create the preconditions for broad market introduction of cost-efcient Passive Houses. Fig. 4 gives an impression of the locations and the types of Passive Houses that have been constructed there.

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Fig. 4. Locations of the CEPHEUS projects.

rooms within the thermal envelope; it includes half of the oor areas of ancillary rooms within the thermal envelope. The TFA is about half the size of the gross oor area that is frequently used as a reference. As a result, the already outstanding energy indices are about twice as high as if they were based on the gross oor area. A precise denition of TFA calculation is given in (Schnieders et al., 2001). That publication also presents and discusses the measurement results in more detail than is possible here. 3.2.1. Energy consumption for space heating 3.2.1.1. Measured space heating consumption. Space heating consumption is the most important criterion for assessing the CEPHEUS Passive Houses. Fig. 5

shows the measured space heat consumption levels for the CEPHEUS projects. The graph shows the space heat consumption per square metre (TFA) and year for each dwelling unit. For each project, a horizontal bar indicates the TFA-weighted mean. The differences within individual projects are even larger than those between the projects. Such degrees of variance in space heat consumption are also known from measurements in the building stock. In addition to differences in the constructions of dwelling units, they are due above all to different indoor temperatures, the impact of which is particularly strong in multifamily apartment buildings (02-Kassel, 09-Kuchl and 06Wolfurt).

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Fig. 5. Measured space heat consumption of CEPHEUS buildings per square metre TFA (partially extrapolated). For every project the TFAweighted mean is displayed as a horizontal bar.

3.2.1.2. Normalized annual consumption levels. It is known from simulation computations and from measurements that indoor temperatures have a considerable inuence on space heat consumption in Passive Houses. It is therefore not appropriate to compare directly the measurement results shown in Fig. 5 with previously calculated values, particularly as measurement data extending over a whole year are not available for all projects. In order to allow for comparisons, the measured values were extrapolated to a full year using the monthly procedure pursuant to EN 832, and normalized to an indoor temperature of 20 1C. In the present instance, this type of extrapolation can be considered conservative (for a reasoning of this cf. (Schnieders et al., 2001)). In addition, it is generally known in the construction sector that energy consumption levels, particularly those for space heat, in the rst heating season can be higher than those that develop later during continuous operationobviously, the evaluation could not compensate for this effect. Fig. 6 compares the normalized space heat consumption levels to reference consumption levels of conventional new buildings that have the same geometry and are built in accordance with locally applicable construction law, and with the space heat requirement values calculated in advance (using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) (Feist et al., 2002)). The PHPP consists of a number of Excel tables and performs a steady-state energy analysis of a Passive House based on the European standard EN 832. It has proved to be an excellent, relatively easy-to-use tool for properly designing Passive Houses. Compared to the reference consumption of conventional new buildings, analysis of the normalized space heat consumption shows that the buildings saved 84% space heat over the area-weighted mean. Savings were

lowest in those projects which were not yet fully completed or where the occupants moved in only during or shortly before the measurement period. In all houses that were already occupied for a longer period, savings are more than 80%. 3.2.2. Energy consumption for domestic hot water The measured useful heat consumption levels for domestic hot water heating exhibit considerable variance, as does the space heat consumption. On average, the consumption levels correspond roughly to the reference values, i.e. the typical consumption (25 l per person per day at 60 1C) of dwelling units with comparable occupancy ratios. As hot water consumption is also a characteristic of the comfort demands of occupants, the study shows that the demands of the occupants of the CEPHEUS projects do not deviate signicantly from the general average. 3.2.3. Household electricity consumption Given the extremely reduced space heat consumption of Passive Houses, the share of electricity consumption in the overall energy consumption is higher. This applies particularly in terms of primary energy. Consequently, the CEPHEUS projects also made efforts to reduce household electricity consumption. Some projects exhibit major savings while others do not. This can be explained by the circumstance that in some projects electricity consumption was not given the same priority in implementation as space heating consumption. In the 01-Hannover and 06-Wolfurt projects, however, implementation of the electricity conservation approach was demonstrated convincingly (38% savings in Hannover)although, in Germany and Austria, it is generally up to the occupants to purchase equipment.

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Fig. 6. Space heat consumption levels determined by measurements, extrapolated for a whole year and normalized to 20 1C indoor temperature (normalized space heat consumption) compared to the consumption of conventional new buildings and to the values calculated in advance using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP).

It should be noted in this context that the measured value contains the electricity consumption of building services systems, including the ventilation system. 3.2.4. Final and primary energy consumption This section is concerned with the non-renewable proportions of nal (also referred to as delivered) and primary energy consumption. Thus, for instance, energy consumption for hot water heating provided directly by a solar thermal installation is not included in the nal energy consumption gures. In contrast, consumption for household, fan and building services electricity, and electricity for joint uses across several dwelling units are included in full in the consumption gures stated. The nal energy consumption gures already contain any distribution losses and losses at heat producers within the buildings. Fig. 7 provides an overview of the mean useful, nal and primary energy consumption levels of the projects (sites). Where no data were available for a complete year, the available measured data were extrapolated. In Fig. 8 there is given a comparison of the consumptions of the CEPHEUS projects and buildings with the same geometry that might have been erected at the same location obeying only the local legal restrictions. The gures illustrate that in all projects exceedingly low primary energy consumption levels were achieved. Compared to conventional new buildings, useful, nal

and primary energy savings of more than 50% were achieved, space heat consumption was even reduced by 80%. 3.2.5. Heat loads The downward leap in costs when the Passive House standard is reached occurs because the separate heating system can be dispensed with. In order to reach the extremely low space heat demand, a balanced ventilation system with heat recovery is required. In a Passive House, the heat load conveyable by means of the necessary supply air sufces to keep the house warm. The measured mean daily heat loads are therefore of particular interest. In many CEPHEUS buildings, the measured heat loads were small enough that heating with the supply air would have been possible. In the cases with higher heating loads, explanations like faults in the planning (e.g. neglected shading which reduces solar gains) or building (e.g. poor airtightness) phase have been found. 3.3. Indoor temperatures 3.3.1. Indoor temperatures in winter Fig. 9 shows the mean values of the measured indoor temperatures in winter. The values generally refer to the months of NovemberFebruary. 07-Dornbirn was only

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Fig. 7. Comparison of useful, nal and primary energy consumption for space heat, domestic hot water and all electricity applications in the houses. For each project, the cumulative bar at the left represents useful energy consumption, that in the middle nal energy and that on the right primary energy consumption. The primary energy factors were determined from GEMIS 4.0 (GEMIS, 2000): Gas 1.15, electricity 2.5, district heat: 0.7, wood pellets: 0.1.

Fig. 8. Comparison of the measured energy consumptions of all CEPHEUS projects (TFA-weighted mean) with the corresponding values of ordinary, newly erected buildings. In the values for electricity and total consumption, household electricity is included. This must be taken into account when comparing with data from other projects where only heating and DHW are given.

occupied in late December 2000; here the temperature data are for January and February. The gure shows that in all CEPHEUS buildings the mean indoor temperature over all occupied zones and the whole measurement period was above 20 1C. Occupants typically set temperatures between 21 1C and 22 1C; the range of the occupied houses is, however, from 17 1C to 25 1C (the mean temperatures below 17 1C measured in 01-Hannover belong to unoccupied houses).

3.3.2. Indoor temperatures in summer Summer indoor temperatures are of particular interest: Would the excellent thermal insulation and optimized passive solar energy use perhaps lead to overheating in summer? Due to the truncated measurement period, data for the summer were only available for few projects. Fig. 10 presents the mean indoor temperatures between 1 May and 31 August. The gure further shows for each house the temperature that was not exceeded for 95% of the time in the stated months.

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Fig. 9. Mean indoor temperatures in winter (generally from 1 November to 28 February).

Fig. 10. Mean indoor temperatures from May to August and 95th percentile of hourly mean values of average house-specic indoor temperatures for the 01-Hannover, 02-Kassel and 09-Kuchl projects. The black lines cutting across the projects represent the overall mean values of the three sites.

This latter value is a better measure of summer-time comfort than the maximum temperature reached, as individual temperature peaks can occur in the absence of occupants or in exceptional situations and are thus not representative. The results show that the summer-time indoor climate in 01-Hannover and 02-Kassel is acceptable. A temperature of 27 1C is only exceeded in exceptional cases. 09-Kuchl has about 1 K higher temperatures, but room temperatures in Kuchl are relatively high in winter, too: the mean temperatures in summer are only 1.8 K higher than those in winter. The measurement results show clearly that summer temperatures in Passive Houses can be kept in a

comfortable range. On closer examination of the temperature curves it was found that the users can attain highly comfortable summer-time temperatures through appropriate ventilation behaviour. Occupancy ratios and shading elements are important, but are secondary to ventilation behaviour. These issues are discussed in greater detail in (Peper et al., 2001). 3.4. Proof of cost-effectiveness The improved construction quality of the building envelope and the highly efcient ventilation systems in Passive Houses require extra investment. If the approach is pursued rigorously, this is counterbalanced by

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4. Occupants satisfaction in Passive Houses In two of the German CEPHEUS projects01Hannover and 02-Kasselsocial science studies were conducted. Several studies reveal quite high levels of satisfaction of Passive House owners. These ndings are veried by the results reported in (Danner, 2001) and (von Oesen, 2001), which show the high degree of

Number DU Additional investment for energy efciency and renewables %a Specic additional investment 1000 h/DU Additional operating costs (without heat costs) h/ DUb Reference nal energy price Cent/kWhc Costs of nal energy for heat & DHW h/DU/a Costs of nal energy for heat & DHW reference case h/DU/a Costs of kWh saved Cent/kWh

Table 2 Some nancial aspects of the CEPHEUS projects

Project

Nr.

Includes the additional costs for solar thermal systems, which, with reference to the kWh saved, were generally higher than those for energy efciency measures. Includes e.g. auxiliary electricity consumption for ventilation, lter replacement, reduced max. demand charge for district heat, no need for chimney sweep. c Location-specic energy prices. In some projects, the use of district heat was obligatory. In many Austrian projects, wood pellets were used.
b

the avoided investment cost for a conventional heating system. However, in most sub-projects of CEPHEUS it was not possible to reduce the overall costs of building services; in several projects, planners and builders were reluctant to dispense with the heat distribution system. In total, the extra construction and engineering system investment was found to be between 0% and 17% of the pure construction costs. On average over 12 projects, the specic extra investment cost is 91 Euro/m2 or 8% of total building cost. A good measure for economic appraisal is provided by determining the costs of the energy conserved. For this, the extra investment for the efciency technology and the solar thermal installations is levelized across 25 years of service life at 4% real interest; to this is added the additional operating cost of the Passive House components. By dividing the annual costs thus determined by the annual fuel savings, we receive a sum per kilowatt-hour saved. This ratio is well suited for comparisons with the present or potential future costs of energy supply. The cost of the heat saved in Passive Houses determined in this way averages across the 12 projects at 6.2 Cent/kWh. This compares with present reference costs of nal energy averaging 5.1 Cent/kWh in the CEPHEUS projects. Compared to the typical cost of solar thermal heat, which is currently 1015 Cent/kWh, this is a very favourable valueand all the more so with regard to potential energy price increases across the long service life of buildings. Table 2 shows some data for the different projects and illustrates the great differences in cost-effectiveness. More details can be found in Schnieders et al. (2001). The additional investment costs of the Passive House standard may be expected to decrease signicantly in the future. Thermal insulation is already relatively inexpensive, whilst suitable windows and high efciency ventilation systems make up for most of the additional costs. If Passive House windows with triple glazing were mass produced, they might cost about 10% more than conventional windows with double glazing. Compact building services, on the other hand, need not be much more expensive than a common refrigerator. By analysing the development of investment costs it is expected that within a few years building Passive Houses will be economical even at present energy prices.

All projects

181 8%

5.1 162 616 7.6 401 1508 5.1 228 1017 4.1 163 1281 4.1 77 498 4.1 74 429 4.1 224 744 4.1 111 622 5.0 208 789 4.1 165 410 4.7 286 506 4.8 162 485 6.1 217 953

8.6 36

Germany, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Switzerland, Hannover Kassel Gothenburg Egg Horbranz Wolfurt Dornbirn Gnigl Kuchl Hallein Horn Steyr Luzern

5 10%

24.4 39

13

3 15%

23.8 56

1 13%

28.4 59

31 7%

7.4 30

6 0%

25 n.a.

09

1 17%

42.1 107

07

10 8%

10.2 58

3 13%

22.1 71

05

4 11%

10.1 66

20 2%

2.0 58

40 8%

6.4 73

32 12%

12.4 37

6.2

01

7.2

02

4.4

03

8.8

04

11

5.5

06

17

1.1

0 43

08

4.8

10

6.6

11

9.0

12

10
a

6.2

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acceptance in the Hannover-Kronsberg Passive Houses. Satisfaction with the indoor climate in winter is stated by a substantial majority of occupants as good to very good. Not a single occupant gave a negative rating. Moreover, the higher surface temperatures and the even temperature distribution throughout the space (no temperature stratication) compared to normal houses are experienced as highly pleasant. For summer, too, the occupants conrm the measurement results88% of those surveyed state that they are satised or very satised with the indoor climate in summer. Air quality is rated by 95% of occupants as good to very good; no negative ratings were reported. There was not a single negative assessment of the ventilation system with heat recovery either. The main difference between the Hannover and Kassel projects were the occupants themselves. Today, several thousand dwelling units exist in Passive Houses which are owned by their occupants. Thus, the owneroccupied Passive Houses in Hannover can be regarded as a kind of standard case. This contrasts sharply with the worlds rst multi-story Passive Houses with 40 ats for low-income tenants, which were erected at very reasonable costs by a local social housing company in Kassel, in 2000. 4.1. The Passive Houses in Kassel (Germany) All Passive House characteristics mentioned above are met by the two houses shown in Fig. 11. Both buildingswith 23 and 17 ats respectively and a total living area of ca. 2900 m2are of massive construction. Calculated and measured space heat demand is approximately 15 kWh/(m2a). The buildings contradict the wide-spread view that solar houses have to be strictly oriented southwards. Due to unchangeable building regulations the buildings main axis is oriented northsouth. It is remarkable that the additional costs compared to a building according to the legal German standard of 1995 was less than 10% (Puger and Feist, 2001b). In May 2000 the rst tenants moved in. 4.2. The research project User-oriented design of Passive Houses The research project User-oriented design of Passive Houses was conducted over a 2.5 year period, starting with the moving in of the rst tenants. The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt funded the evaluation project. The projects main aim was to nd out which requirements Passive Houses have to full to be able to reach a signicant share on the building market and thus contribute to a more sustainable future. Several partners were involved in this project, reecting the interdisci-

Fig. 11. Multi-story Passive Houses in Kassel (Germany).

plinary approach:

   

The Center for Environmental Systems Research of the University of Kassel The Passive House-Institute in Darmstadt Innovatec, Kassel (engineering of the innovative system for heating and ventilation) the builder: the non-prot public housing association of the city of Kassel (GWG).

The following were the principal elements of the research:

   

analysis of user behaviour by means of social-science based inquiries detailed research on the reasons for the user behaviour derivation of measures to improve technical and behavioural deciencies evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures.

At the beginning of the project, it was hypothesised that the effect of tenant-behaviour on the demand for heating energy might be much higher than in owner cases. Tenants usually do not identify themselves as much with their dwelling and its characteristics as owners do. Therefore the motivation to deal with unfamiliar technologies and the willingness to change customs might be lower. To get reliable results an interdisciplinary approach was chosen:

On a technical level, energy consumption, corresponding states of technical systems, and system parameters were measured and calculated, partly within the CEPHEUS project and partly tailored to the projects needs. On a social-science level, the focus was on the effect of individual strategies and behaviours on energy consumption and on personal, technical and indoorclimatic conditions which inuence these behaviours.

A longitudinal study with three partly standardised personal interviews was conducted as main part of the

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social science research. The interviews were conducted in November 2000, March 2001 and May 2002. The aim was to interview members of all households in the buildings. Percentages for actually interviewed tenants are 91.7% for the rst interview, 94.7% for the second interview and 82.1% for the third interview. For longitudinal studies, it is desirable to interview the same tenants. Due to higher uctuation in social housing, there are some differences compared to the usually quite stable conditions in ats that are occupied by their owners. Nevertheless, the percentages for actually interviewed tenants occupying the same at during the whole study were 84.2% in building 1 and 92.3% in building 2. These results can be regarded as very satisfactory. 4.3. Results Knowing why people moved in is important in stimulating the market for Passive Houses. In its rst advertising campaign, the social housing company stressed the characteristics Passive House and low energy demand. Unfortunately the response was weak. Only after returning to stress conservative features like very attractive site, balcony and new buildings there was a big response. In leading the potential tenants through the ats there was no special allusion to the Passive House; the only thing that had to be explained were the missing radiators: Nevertheless, it will get warm! Altogether, the housing company was very successful in renting the ats. Fig. 12 shows reasons for moving in. Obviously the reported reasons reect the experience of the housing company. Denitely the least important reason was the Passive House feature, whereas without a balcony hardly anybody would have moved in. There is a quite a large range of required temperatures. During the interviews, we asked the tenants about how they felt the current temperature while the real temperatures were measured. The temperatures that were judged to be exactly right varied between 19.4 1C and 24 1C. The measured average temperature is about 21.51C, and thus matches the CEPHEUS average. According to the theory of thermal comfort, the indoor air temperature should be lower when the temperature of surrounding surfaces is higher. Due to the superinsulation of walls and windows, surface temperatures are very close to the air temperature. Nevertheless there were no lower indoor air temperatures than in normal buildings. That means, there is a comfort gain due to higher operative temperatures. Ventilation behaviour may strongly inuence the energetic performance of a Passive House. Regular ventilation by opening the windows has two disadvantages: by opening the windows, the ventilation rate is

Fig. 12. Reasons for moving in.

increased. This leads to reduced humidity; on the other hand the efciency of the heat recovery decreases, which leads to signicantly higher energy inputs. Therefore the readiness of the tenants to keep the windows shut is a decisive factor. Fig. 13 shows the self-assessment of the tenants ventilation behaviour, i.e. for each window in their at they were asked about opening/tilting in detail with the help of a plan of the ats layout. Complete answers for a typical whole day were given by the dwellers of 31 ats. For example in at 21, on a typical day tilting of all windows adds to 60 min and opening adds to 20 min. The ats are sorted by (1) tilted windows and (2) opened windows. In general the window ventilation is very low, i.e within a tolerable range that does not upset the energy balance. The hypothesis that smokers (ats indicated with S) might open the windows more often could not be veried. More apparent is the relation between manual ventilation and the evaluation of the automatic controlled ventilation. There is a signicant correlation between high manual ventilation and low opinion expressed of the controlled ventilation. As to the ventilation system, on average it is viewed as good (4.1). Apart from this total evaluation of the heating system, the tenants were asked to evaluate the ventilation system with respect to certain characteristics (Fig. 14). As Fig. 14 shows, the initial problem of noise lost signicance, due to slight technical enhancements and better information of the tenants (e.g. explanation that ventilators get noisy if lters are neither cleaned nor changed). The evaluations of producing wanted temperature and controllability are very closely related. Many tenants had not yet become accustomed to the quite slow change of temperature resulting from manipulations of the temperature control. This slow change, which may take several hours for occupants to detect, is due to the very low installed heating power. This is quite different from radiators, where thermostat manipulations produce an immediate temperature feed-

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Fig. 13. Ventilation by opening the windows compared to evaluation of ventilation system.

Fig. 14. Detailed evaluation of the ventilation system.

back. Removal of odours is another point, where a change in the handling could be helpful. Each at is equipped with a maximum ventilation switch that causes very high ventilation for about 30 min in the whole at, including the bathroom (the toilet is situated

in the bathroom). The switch is situated in the kitchen and thus produces the misconception that it is dedicated only to kitchen odours. In building 1 the operation of this switch has been recorded. Eighteen out of 23 households are using the maximum ventilation switch

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less than once per day. Higher use surely would increase the opinion expressed of removal of odours. Quite often it is assumed that because of excessive dryness the satisfaction with humidity is low in houses with controlled ventilation. Fig. 15 shows the satisfaction with humidity for the heating period 2001/02. According to Fig. 15 on average this assumption is not true for the Passive Houses in Kassel. Also the evaluation of this point might have scored higher, if the tenants were more willing to follow the instructions. Before the second winter, the tenants were informed that humidity would increase if they used the low ventilation position instead of the normal ventilation position. According to the measurements, general air quality wouldnot have been affected signicantly by this measure. Indeed the information letter was quite effective, but still should have been more effective. While in November the low ventilation position on average was only used 18% of the day, it increased to about 28% in December and about 60% for the rest of the winter. Fig. 16 shows satisfaction with indoor air temperatures, which was generally high. The satisfaction expressed with the temperatures in the living room and bathroom shows an interesting phenomenon. Before the rst winter there was high scepticism about the unfamiliar ventilation system. The question Are you worried that the ventilation system would not heat sufciently in winter was answered as follows: On a scale from 0 (not worried at all) to 6 (very much worried) 21 out of 29 interviewed persons answered between 3 and 6. After the rst winter, the same people answered the question How satised are you with how the ventilation system heated your at? as follows: on a scale from 0 (very dissatised) to 6 (very satised) 26 out of 29 answered between 3 and 6 (total average 4.7). A

great relief could be felt, resulting from an apparently quite high anxiety before the winter that was increased by friends comments like: Would you like an electric heater as a Christmas present? The absence of radiators was misunderstood as absence of heating. In traditional research about user behaviour in the eld of household energy, the aim has often been to nd direct explanations for a persons energy demand resulting from psychological variables. Usually temperature is the most important indicator with a direct effect on the energy demand. Unfortunately this relation is no longer valid in multi-family Passive Houses, which makes it impossible to draw inferences about prospective heating demand from psychological models (e.g. FishbeinAjzens model of planned behaviour). Fig. 17 shows the very weak relation between energy use for space heating and the average indoor air temperature. The gure reveals that the correlation between space heat energy in the ats and the average temperature in the ats is quite low r 0:38; as is the correlation between total energy input into the at and the average temperature in the at r 0:5: On the rst sight this seems to contradict the statement in 3.2.1 that y indoor temperatures have a considerable inuence on space heat consumption in Passive Houses. Indeed for whole buildings the correlation between the average indoor temperature and the space heat demand is high. If it is about ats in multi-family houses, the correlation is much lower, especially because of cross-heat-ows between neighbouring ats, which do not affect the energy balance of the whole building, because they take place inside the building. The absolute amount of those heat ows between ats is the same as in ordinary buildings. Due to the very low total consumption in Passive Houses the relative share of these cross-heatows in a ats space heat demand is much higher

Fig. 15. Satisfaction with humidity during heating period.

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Fig. 16. Satisfaction with room temperatures.

Fig. 17. Energy use and indoor air temperature (sorted by average temperature October 2001April 2002).

than in other buildings, which reduces the temperaturespace heat demand-correlation. Above, compared to normal houses, the relation between energy for space heating and hot water and electricity is highly distorted. Whereas in normal houses the energy input for space heating clearly dominates the share of hot water and electricity, there are quite similar shares of these three heating sources in Passive Houses, as has been explained

earlier in this paper. Another factor that contributes to the heating is the tenants body heat. This share shows the same pattern as the other sources. Fig. 17 also reveals in detail that in this project the projected energy use for space heating was matched, which was proved by measurements within the CEPHEUS project. (Puger and Feist, 2001a). Another insight is that neither extreme savers nor extreme

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prodigals could be detected. There are no outliers in the distribution. Sustainable buildings should not only need little energy but also enhance the human well-being and human health. Low-energy houses are often prone to mold problems, and of course this would affect the dwellers health. In both Passive Houses no mold problems were reported by the tenants. They felt quite a positive effect of the Passive House on their well-being as Fig. 18 shows. About 50% of the tenants feel better than before. Due to lack of evidence from ordinary new houses this effect partly might be explained by the evaluated passive houses simply being new. There were similar results regarding the evaluation of comfort compared to conventional houses (cf. Fig. 19).

The questions regarding comfort were of the type: (Ventilation/Living in a Passive House/living in a Passive House in winter/living in a Passive House in summer) is different from other buildings. Do you feel that this tends to reduce comfort or to increase it? All results indicate a perceived increase of comfort. Following from the measurement results reported above it is maybe not surprising that this is also felt in summer even slightly more than in winter. This is due to the very high satisfaction with indoor air temperatures in summer: on a scale from 0 (very dissatised) to 6 (very satised) the average evaluation was 5.2! The results show that most of the tenants became accustomed to the unusual surrounding very quickly. Fig. 20 summarizes the tenants opinions. Very easy control of the ventilation, very high thermal comfort and air quality make the tenants feel very

Fig. 18. Evaluation of changes in sanitary well-being.

Fig. 19. Evaluation of comfort.

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Fig. 20. Tenants opinions about their Passive Houses.

comfortable. In addition, they are realizing that costs for heating are extremely low. In contrast to occupants of conventional buildings, as to costs for space heating, they will be nearly unaffected by further increasing energy prices. This high acceptance of Passive Houses by tenants is of crucial importance in marketing this ultraefcient building type. 4.4. Recommendations for user-oriented design Although the general satisfaction of the tenants is high, we have some recommendations, which are of course equally valid for owner-occupied houses. 1. Basic needs should always be considered in the design of any house type. Especially in Passive Houses for tenants these basic needs like easy accessible, sufcient space for prams and bicycles or cool storerooms have a considerable impact on satisfaction and acceptance. 2. There should also be a minimal ventilation for the staircase. Coming from their well ventilated ats, some tenants were disturbed by stale air in the staircase. 3. In rare cases there was disturbance from odours from make-up air. Intense investigations showed that under unfavourable wind conditions there was a short circuit between the openings for exhaust air and make-up air. This has to be avoided by arranging these openings in a way that avoids short circuits. In the project this enhancement could be realised by easy technical changes. 4. It has been mentioned already that people had problems to understand the maximum ventilation switch. The easiest solution is another switch in the bathroom/WC.

5. The exchange rate of the indoor air should be measured after the installation of the ventilation system. Unwanted high ventilation rates should be avoided to provide for agreeable humidity. 6. There should be a prompt or a display indicating the failure of components like ventilators. Tenants do not care as much about the devices proper functioning as owners do. 7. It should be absolutely clear which doors have to be closed to avoid unnecessary heat losses. In building 2 the inner door of the porch was designed to provide for a tight building. Unfortunately the porch was used extensively for parking prams and bicycles. Therefore the inner door quite often stood open. As a result, all doors and cellar windows were equipped with small signs saying that in winter all doors and windows should be kept closed. 8. Written information about the handling of the heating and ventilation system only yielded moderate understanding. Therefore we strongly recommend that a qualied person should explain and demonstrate the handling of the system, e.g. change of lters, as soon as a tenant moves in. 9. A clue to the tenants appreciation of extremely low heating costs is an easily understandable consumption bill. Although in each at meters for energy used for space heating had been installed, most of the tenants could not discern which of the various gures on the bill really indicated the cost for space heating. An interviewer, qualied in engineering, needed 20 min to understand the bill that was presented to him by a disenchanted tenant. 10. At the beginning, the housing company provided for a change of lters every 6 months. Intermediate cleaning of the lters turned out to be quite an effort

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with only little success. Now lters are changed every 3 months. 11. Components like fans, heat exchangers, and switches are not of high enough quality. Technical failures like broken fans, leakages in heat exchangers and failure of switches may trigger dissatisfaction with the whole Passive House, although these components are not specic to Passive Houses. Just because tenants may need some time to perceive a failure, high quality standards taken for granted in other industrial branches should be met soon.

5. Market success and sustainability Both projectsCEPHEUS and User oriented design of Passive Houses clearly identied the Passive House as feasible, credible and comfortable both from the technical and social point of view. This leads to high acceptance and satisfaction of the occupants. CEPHEUS showed that all these advantages can be reached with little more initial investment and that the life cycle cost is probably lower than in all other known building types. What has to be done then to help Passive Houses gain the market share they deserve? To be a market success requires that a product offers various comparative advantages versus other products on this market. These advantages have to exist not in the eyes of some scientists or technicians but in the eyes of the relevant market players like architects and customers on the building market. Unfortunately buildings clearly belong to the socalled experience goods, i.e. the positive characteristics show only after a considerable period of possession and use. Usually it is not possible to try a house before nally moving in. Therefore it is common practice to rely on the experience which is reported by reliable sources like friends, un-prejudiced magazines and so on. Therefore to convince these target groups at rst there has to be a series of real projects that can be experienced with all senses and creates a pool of experience. Fortunately, the number of Passive Houses has been growing continuously in Germany, Austria and Switzerland during the last few years (Fig. 21) and is now sufciently large. The theoretically predicted advantages turn out to be realistic and this knowledge gradually spreads among the relevant groups. The success story starts with the rst demonstration project in DarmstadtKranichstein in 1991. It can be judged as extremely important for the later development that this rst project was very well monitored and results were documented in great detail. The goals of the project were reached not only in terms of energy efciency: scientic social research showed a high degree of user satisfaction, air quality measurements proved the
Fig. 21. The number of Passive Houses doubles about every year.

benets of the controlled ventilation system, etc. This was exactly what was needed as starting point to convince scientists, building experts and potential customers. Another prerequisite for follow-up projects was the fact that, except for the higher quality of components, Passive Houses are rather similar in construction to standard buildings and that no special construction type is required. Being on the market, the various comparative advantages could be checked. The main argument on the building market is cost, and unfortunately this generally means investment cost and not total cost of ownership or life cycle cost. But even this hurdle was taken by the demonstration projects in HannoverKronsberg, where Passive Houses were built at costs even below those of nearby, conventional terraced houses. This example shows that the additional investment costs lie in the range of typical differences in the results of the bidding procedure. The realized low investment cost was helped by small, innovative manufacturers, who started to produce the required components in series which leads to cost reduction. Fig. 22 illustrates the economic principle of the Passive House: Saving energy leads to increasing investment costs, but reduced energy costs. Saving 1 kWh of energy becomes more expensive if the energy demand is already low. But if increased efciency renders a building component (in this case: the heating system) unnecessary, higher efciency becomes affordable. Depending on the conditions of the respective case, building more efcient houses may even be cheaper. As soon as the investment cost question is solved, potential occupants look upon additional benets that a house possibly should have. In most cases, low energy consumption is not enough for owner-occupiers or tenants to move into a Passive House. Such benets are

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140 Total costs 120 Energy costs Construction costs

6. Conclusions CEPHEUS has tested and proven the viability of the Passive House concept at the European level. In Germany, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and France, a total of 221 housing units in 14 building projects have been built to Passive House standards and are now occupied. The project demonstrated the functional viability of the Passive House concept at all sites, the actual achievement of the space heat savings target, practical implementability of Passive Houses in a broad variety of building styles and constructions, project-level economic viability and a high degree of satisfaction of building occupants. The Passive House technology has triggered a fresh burst of innovation in the construction industry. Passive House components are available from an increasing number of manufacturers. For example, in October 2003, 39 different Passive House windows were available. CEPHEUS has made publicly accessible all experience gained and the key planning tools for the Passive House concept. The authors see several possibilities on the political side to support the spread of the Passive House principle. On the one hand there are activities helping to push Passive Houses into the market, i.e. activities that stimulate e.g. architects and housing companies to think about Passive Houses. Outside the centre of the Passive House development (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), demonstration projects are required in order to disseminate the know-how about which construction details are of importance and to overcome the initial scepticism of housebuilders and consumers. Research projects on how to adapt the principle to different climate conditions and building habits are also required. For example, triple glazing is required in Central Europe, but may become unnecessary or even counterproductive in regions with higher insolation. It is generally not a good idea to subsidize the additional investment cost of energy saving measures because the incentive for reducing the cost of the respective components would be lost. What appears to be more helpful is the support of additional planning efforts or quality assurance. Fixed subsidies for reaching a certain efciency level might be helpful, too. Furthermore, politics could nancially support demonstration and dissemination: guided tours, test living in realized buildings, production and distribution of information material. Beside these push factors there are other measures that would stimulate a market pull, i.e. to induce potential occupants to ask for Passive Houses. The main barrier on the building market is a lack of transparency, which is valid for several major advantages of Passive Houses. Everybody knows that a 1-l car is extraordinarily energy saving. Although there are more buildings
cost reduction: heating system

Capitalized costs [/m]

100 80 60 40 20 0
0 10
Passive House w compact building services

low energy houses

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Specific space heat demand [kWh/(ma)]

Fig. 22. Typical dependence of total, capitalized costs on the space heat demand for a terraced house (Passive House case with compact building services).

e.g. as follows: prestige, wellness, comfort, environmental friendliness. Gradually Passive Houses are expanding from a niche market that was perceived to be ultra-green or at least lacking added prestige. In the meantime public opinion changes in a direction which makes it more impressive to boast about a consumption of 200 litres fuel oil instead of 2000 litres whilst never having heard of cold feet or draughts than to have a oor heating installed to overcome such problems. But the future holds other questions where Passive Houses can provide a better answer. One of the most important issues is sustainable building. In general sustainable building has a social, an ecological and an economic component. A social advantage is affordability of comfortable living. While people in normal houses always have to fear a considerable increase of heating energy prices, because this would cut sharply their remaining budget, occupants of Passive Houses nearly remain unaffected by such developments. The very low energy consumption also leads to the least lifecycle cost of Passive Houses which is a major economic argument. In terms of ecology the small remaining energy demand clearly more than compensates the additional energy input for thicker insulation and better windows, i.e. Passive Houses show the best life cycle balances of all available building standards. This alone would not be a suffcient argument for Passive Houses to be an ecologically sustainable option. Least consumption does not necessarily mean little enough for being sustainable. Swiss calculations of allowable environmental loads for a dwelling unit provide rst evidence that the building energy standard necessary to stay within the allowable limits has to be much better than low-energy and may be situated in the range of Passive Houses (Haas et al., 2002).

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than cars hardly anybody knows the meaning of a 1-lbuilding. A Passive House roughly consumes the equivalent of 1 litre fuel oil per m2 and year for space heating. As soon as possible an energy labelling scheme for buildings should be implemented which is comparable to what everybody knows from white goods products. Realistic calculation procedures for the absolute energy demand are even more important. Depending on the algorithm used, the results of different calculations for the same building may vary considerably. This is not merely a question of correct prediction of consumptions, but of correct comparison of different energy-saving measures. The European standard EN 832 is a good starting point, but depending on which boundary conditions are used the results may become misleading. An issue related to labelling is a unied method for calculating the oor area. In this article the TFA was mentioned as one possibility. Unfortunately, the calculation quite often is dubious and in these cases always leads to bigger oor areas what in turn leads to lower specic consumption gures. Another disadvantage is the practice of talking about investment costs or cold rent instead of total cost of ownership or warm rent. It would be easy to create a legal framework, where it would be obligatory to deliver a standardized calculation of annual total cost of ownership or warm rent when selling or renting ats or houses. In most countries, there will be some minor details in legislation that hinder the development. If, for example, the use of district heat is obligatory in some regions, the overall cost of energy supply for Passive Houses will increase signicantly because connecting the building to the district heat is extremely expensive in comparison to the cost of consumption. Exceptions from such rules for very efcient buildings should be possible. Last but not least the project experience showed that even interested occupants could not detect the very low energy cost on their complicated bills. Thus the evidence for a major Passive House advantage was hindered by obscure billing. Something like a mandatory clearness of billing test could be imagined, which could be executed by energy agencies. The Passive House is a few steps ahead of the current building regulations of most countries. Although it is too early to change the building regulations accordingly, it might be possible to leave out some steps in between the current and the future building standards by relatively moderate political support. The majority of the numerous reports on the CEPHEUS project are in German. The English version of the nal report, on which part of this paper is based, is available as a PDF-le from www.passiv.de/07_eng/ news/C-Meas_F.htm.

Acknowledgements The CEPHEUS project was funded by the Directorate General XVII of the European Commission. The participation of the Passive House Institute became possible through additional funding by the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Forests of the land of Hesse. The project User Oriented Design of Passive Houses was funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt.

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