Western Australia’s first CERTIFIED PASSIVHAUS.
Australia’s first CERTIFIED PASSIVHAUS PREMIUM home.
One of the first 10 PASSIVHAUS PREMIUM projects around the world.
Designed for an extensive family occupancy this large house visually nestles well within the street scene and the ‘Beach House’ theme is totally appropriate to the locality.
Designed to provide stable thermal, draft free comfort with excellent indoor air quality along with high levels of energy efficiency, Passivhaus, the voluntary German standard was employed the assure achievement in the design and the execution.
The building was tested for airtightness during construction and after completion and achieved an air change rate of 0.3 air changes per hour at 50 pascals. (Passivhaus requires a maximum rate of 0.6ach.)
The building has a Zehnder Heat Recovery Ventilation System incorporating a brine loop ground source heat exchanger to pre-condition incoming fresh air and supply line cooling and heating coils.
Domestic Hot Water is supplied via locally produced solar thermal panel system with heat pump back up which also provide sufficient hot water to warm the house when needed.
The below ground areas were constructed using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) over an insulated concrete slab with the upper walls and roof being formed in Structurally Insulated Panels.
James Hardie’s Linea Weatherboard was selected for the exterior cladding for its ‘Beach House’ effect along with their ‘HardieGroove’ for the soffit linings and Scyon boards for the wet area floors.
Double glazed UPVC doors and windows were fabricated locally from German profiles and installed utilising Pro Clima Intello membranes and Tescon Vana tapes.
Bulk insulation was utilised in the horizontal sections of the thermal envelope along with XPS and Kingspan Kooltherm where higher performance was needed.
Solar PV panels were added to the roof areas for renewable energy generation and should cover total energy use when economically priced batteries are installed.
The house is the first in WA to achieve the Passivhaus Standard and with its renewable energy capability is the first CERTIFIED PASSIVHAUS PREMIUM building in Australia and one of only 10 around the world at the time of certification.