Energy performance of two multi-story wood-frame passive houses in Sweden

Abstract

Two eight-story wood-framed residential buildings with the Swedish 2012 passive house standard were built in 2009 in the Portvakten Söder quarter in the city of Växjö in Sweden. In this paper, we present the monitored specific energy use of the buildings and compare to the requirements of the Swedish building code and recommendation for passive houses. We also estimated the primary energy use and CO2 emissions and investigated the tenants' views and experiences of the two buildings. Results show that the actual specific energy use of 40.2 kWh/m2Atemp/year in the Portvakten Söder building fulfills, by a good margin, the requirements of the Swedish building code and the recommended passive house standard, but is higher than projected. Applying a marginal perspective, the calculated primary energy use and carbon dioxide emission from operating the buildings (excluding household electricity) was 40 kWh/m2Atemp/year and zero, respectively. Responses of 20 tenants to a mail-in questionnaire survey showed that over 90% were satisfied with their apartments.