outPHit outcomes

 

The outPHit project is resulting in a number of interesting outcomes –  be they informational materials, guidelines, protocols or tools. While most will also be published on this website under the corresponding categories, this list should serve to give an overview of the most interesteing project deliverables.

Publications

• EnerPHit - Renovating with Passive House components
  The Renovating with Passive House Components brochure covers the basics of building physics and Passive House retrofits according to the EnerPHit standard, listing many relevant case studies. These real-life examples, together with the theoretical basis, provide a great overview for anyone interested in retrofitting buildings of all types, saving money on their energy bills, creating healthier buildings, and making a difference for the environment in the process.
  This publication is also available in German: EnerPHit - Sanieren mit Passivhaus-Komponenten
   
• Renovation done right
  This booklet puts the spotlight on four of the inspirational case studies at the heart of the project and is intended for a general audience. The publication shows that renovation, when done right, is about far more than “just” energy efficiency, providing insight into the often life-changing nature of EnerPHit renovations for building residents - be they conventional, semi-prefabricated or done entirely with prefab components. The booklet also reviews basic Passive House principles, giving an overview of the EnerPHit standard and the resources available for those considering high-performance renovation.

Decision Making Support

• Decision Support Tool
  With the Decision Support Tool, outPHit facilitates the planning for energy-related improvements adn thus the first steps in the refurbishment process. Planners must make crucial decisions in the design phase before energy-efficient renovations are being implemented. The Decision Support Tool provides the needed guidance by comparing different renovation concepts for a respective building. This makes it easier for those involved in the construction process to find a suitable approach for their building right from the start of the planning phase. The web-based tool is available in English and free of charge.
   

• Energy Performance of Buildings Directive revision
  The Passive House Institute (PHI) welcomes the European Union's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. PHI recognises the recent attempt to introduce more clearly defined Zero Emission Buildings and minimum performance standards in building renovation to improve the building stock of the EU Member States towards climate neutrality. However, we fear that, particularly in building retrofits, the minimum requirements for the Member States will not be sufficient to reduce the energy demand of buildings to such an extent that they can be met with renewable sources only. We recommend further specifications and more ambitious requirements, specifically in building renovation.
   

• Summer Comfort Guidelines
  With warming climate conditions, the topic of resilience to overheating is becoming increasingly important. High indoor temperatures are a matter of comfort and are highly related to health. This guideline for summer comfort has been written to raise awareness and aid building designers in developing a robust strategy to ensure thermal comfort all year round. The provided design aid helps identify effective passive cooling techniques and analyse potential summer comfort risks of a project.
   

• Summer Comfort User Manual
  In order to prevent misunderstandings and to ensure the building will perform as intended once in use, the chosen summer comfort strategy should be sufficiently explained to the future users. This template for a summer comfort user manual already contains some general recommendations and can be expanded with project specific user instructions e.g. for the ventilation strategy.
   

• Manufacturing Energy Evaluation Tool (MEET)
  Contrary to popular belief that the manufacturing energy of building components plays a decisive role in the overall energy balance of a building, in reality, it is often the operating energy that is crucial. The Passive House Institute has therefore investigated appropriate methods for assessing both manufacturing and operational energy. This tool allows for the assessment and comparison of the manufacturing and operational energy as well as CO_2eq emissions (GWP) of individual materials, opaque assemblies, glazing, and window frames. It can also be used to evaluate entire buildings. For more details on the methodology behind the tool, click here:
  Methodology of the Embodied Energy Evaluation Tool
   
• Fact Sheet "Climate Neutral Building Stock"
  The Passive House Institute has just released a fact sheet on how to quickly achieve a climate-neutral building stock within the framework of outPHit. The document is based on the results of a study on how best to achieve 2050 climate goals within Germany's building sector.
   
• The PV economy evaluation kit with tool
  The rigour of the EnerPHit standard pairs perfectly with renewable energy. When it comes to single and multi-family buildings, a photovoltaic system (PV) can be an attractive solution to supply energy right on-site. The PV Econ tool, published as part of the outPHit project in collaboration between the University of Innsbruck and the Passive House Institute, helps with evaluating how to set up a PV system. The tool provides guidance on how to optimize renewable electricity supply (PV) and electricity use of heat pumps & household appliances. Download
   
• Towards a climate-compatible building stock
  (Updated version with analysis of the Coalition Agreement of 2021)
  In this study is shown that above all, it is a matter of using upcoming measures in the building for carrying out energy retrofits at the same time ("coupling principle"), and at a consistently high quality ("if you have to do it at all, do it right"). The additional investment will then be small, and it will be compensated for by the saved energy costs – that's climate protection not only at zero cost but also with additional profit. This opportunity can be used to undertake measures in addition, which can be implemented quickly as other "low hanging fruits", which will already accommodate dependencies and energy costs in the next winter.
  The study is also available in a one-pager format.
  The study is also available in German: "Der weg zu einem klimaverträglichen Gebäudebestand" ( one-pager format in German )

Monitoring

• Concept note for the performance verification of energy efficient buildings
  Verification of actual building performance has the potential to be the ultimate quality assurance step in delivering highly efficient buildings. The outPHit consortium is therefore developing a verified performance certification scheme as a standard step for final approval of deep retrofits to the EnerPHit Standard. This concept note outlines the consortium’s plans.

• Simplified monitoring approach for energy parameters
  High quality deep retrofits not only reduce energy consumption to sustainable levels but also make for even surface temperatures, heightened thermal comfort and appreciably improved indoor air quality. The approach thus describes a pre and post retrofit monitoring process for energy relevant data as well as for indoor air quality including mould and airborne fungal spores.

• Instructions for adequate monitoring equipment for living quality assessment
  Deep retrofits offer the unique advantage to not only reduce energy consumption to sustainable levels and cover a large part of the residual demand with on-site RES but also implement a holistic improvement of the indoor environment.  The large number of projects in a wide geographical area that are investigated as demonstration projects of the outPHit project offer the unique opportunity to apply a uniform sampling and evaluation method and derive comparable results. Here a documentation of the methodology of sampling and evaluation. Because the measurement of air quality should be done simultaneously with the collection of energetic measurement data, this document refers on the simplified monitoring approach for energy paramenters whereas the measurement of the air quality is depicted in more detail.

• Adequate Net Zero Rating Approach
  As outPHit and the EU strive for a sustainable future it is vital to pick the appropriate yardstick. Inappropriate incentives could cause lock-in effects at a later date even if they sound reasonable at first glance. This approach picks up on the claims of the most discussed concepts and how they may steer the development and thus helps project managers navigate through the different concepts of “net zero” to ensure a reliable and robust assessment of building concepts with regard to carbon emissions and the transition to renewable energy sources.
   

• Report on potential of on-site usage of RES
  This report showcases the renewable energy potential in several case study projects across Europe based on their PHPP calculation and in comparison to measured data (where applicable).  The publication shows the importance of a minimized space heating demand and underlines the benefits of the EnerPHit standard.  In addition, it highlights the impact of EV charging and battery storage on the grid load. 

Renovation plans

• Renovation approach documents
  Detailed descriptions of the renovation approaches employed for many of the project's case studies are for download in the information section of each case study on the outPHit website. These documents deliver insight into how various outPHit case studies are being retrofitted to meet the EnerPHit standard for renovations in line with Passive Houe principles and provide a comprehensive overview of each building in question, its condition before the retrofit and the planned improvements in terms of air tightness, technical systems, insulation and building components.

• Description of a whole house renovation system certification concept
  Through a certification process of such renovation systems, the quality of the system, the overall component performance, but also including critical points such as thermal bridges, airtightness or ventilation heat recovery, can be assured to fulfil the ambitions required for deep renovation projects, such as EnerPHit retrofits. Furthermore, through the examination by the certification process, specific performance values of the deep renovation systems are determined and made available, by transparently describing U-values, thermal bridge coefficients or ventilation heat recovery efficiency within the certificate so these values can reliably be used for the energy efficiency planning of the renovation projects. By offering approved descriptions of the airtightness concept and further information about the systems, stakeholders applying such renovation concepts can select a better renovation system.

• Description of a certification scheme on "verified building performance"
  This report outlines the concept developed to measure and evaluate the performance of deep retrofit projects implementing the outPHit methodology in the field. Efforts are made to streamline and automate most steps to make the building performance evaluation process, with sound consideration of measuring uncertainty, accessible to new target groups, such as architects and engineers or even builders. A procedure to systematically evaluate elementary living quality parameters has been identified.

• Description for a design-stage-approval concept
  This paper aims to draft a concept for the design stage approval concept (DSA) and the resulting document Design Stage Approval Letter (DSAL). The approach will be applied to the outPHit renovation projects and will help the involved parties achieving the desired efficiency standard. The results of this test will be integrated into the final version of the DSA concept.

• District evaluation reports from Greece, Austria, Bulgaria and Germany
  This study of renovation scenarios in a Greek, Bulgarian and an Austrian district as well as for all of Germany shows how renovations carried out with a rigorous focus on superior energy performance can avoid lock-in effects, leading to vast energy savings and significantly lower emissions, even at consistently more comfortable indoor temperatures. The scenarios for each district were conducted with DistrictPH, an open-source, excel-based tool developed by the Passive House Institute, capable of calculating detailed energy balances for entire districts as well as their development over time.
  Political recommendations on the basis of the German scenarios in this study: Towards a climate-compatible building stock