Passive buildings: a state-of-the-art review

Abstract

Passive buildings are proving to be a solution to menaces of energy crisis and greenhouse gas emissions across the world. Such buildings tend to exhibit low energy demand owing to their cleverly designed envelopes, which comprise of walls, roofs, doors, windows and other openings. This requires use of new materials and technology, leading to an increased initial construction cost. However, with reduced energy consumption, the lifecycle cost of a passive building may be lower than that of a conventional building. These passive buildings also need to cater to occupants’ comfort which is subject to local climatic conditions and climate change. This article discusses economic feasibility and climatic adaptability of a passive building, in addition to advances in passive building strategies. Owing to lack of general awareness and standards related to passive building construction, these buildings have not achieved enough popularity. While many countries are striving hard to bring passive buildings to common masses, a large number of countries are yet to initiate the move. This article outlines several active organizations, standards and rating systems for passive buildings. This article also presents some of the recent research trends and a comprehensive bibliography for the benefit of researchers and practitioners.

Passive Buildings—Big Opportunities or Big Risks? Quantitative Risk Assessment for Passive Buildings Projects

“…The results obtained from University College London indicate that the overall capital cost uplift for the development of a new passive building was only 0.9%, taking into account the life cycle costs [69]. Similarly, in [21], it was observed that passive buildings are likely to have a lower cost during their design life due to a lower energy consumption and a carbon footprint compared to traditional buildings. However, based on the experience of the authors and the information collected during meetings with passive house experts, in the author's opinion, the above-mentioned estimations from the literature concern exemplary, high-quality passive building projects, which were successfully completed without the occurrence of unwanted events.…”

“…Besides this, developing passive buildings enables the achievement of EU energy policy goals connected with the European Green Deal. In addition, passive buildings are affordable as their higher initial cost results in a lower cost during their design life due to lower energy consumption and a carbon footprint compared to traditional buildings [21]. Last but not least, the concept of a passive building is based on building physics, so it cannot fail, and meeting the heating, cooling, and primary energy demand of a building is checked in computer programs (e.g., the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) dedicated to PHs) before its realization phase.…”

Identification of Potential Impacts of Climate Change and the Adaptation Options in Low-Cost Strata Residential Building in Malaysia

“…Recent studies worldwide have noted a signifi cant reduction in energy consumption, ranging from 30% to 50%, attributed to modifi cations in building envelopes. These changes include improvements like thermal insulation in roofs and walls, external walls and roofs with shading, the incorporation of overhangs and wing walls in windows, as well as the use of refl ective-coated glass for window glazing, (Anand, et al 2023).…”

Using IoT in Double Skin Facades toward Thermal Comfort: A Review

“…The Internet of Things enables the development of a flexible system architecture that uses sensor data to improve the efficiency of passive buildings. On the other hand, the practical design of an IoT sensor network for a specific building still relies on the knowledge and experience of a diverse team of experts [18] . In Passive House sensor networks: Human-centric thermal comfort, this project aims to make Passive Houses (PH) more comfortable for people.…”