Performance Evaluation and Resilience Testing of a Passivhaus School

Abstract

Passivhaus has emerged as a reliable solution for reducing the environmental impact of buildings. Buildings designed to Passivhaus standards have a proven track record of very low energy use. In the UK context, these buildings can provide comfortable buildings with little heating requirement and almost no cooling. However, buildings generally have a service life of more than 50 years and evolve in their function and operations. In that case, increased global warming due to changing climate might mean that Passivhaus buildings, designed without comfort cooling, may not be resilient to future extreme weather events. Using a case study example of a Passivhaus school, this paper evaluates operational performance (energy and thermal comfort) of Passivhaus buildings and test it under possible future scenarios.