Darmstadt, Germany. 20 August 2024. The planning phase is where all the important decisions are made before any deep renovation project is executed. outPHit is supporting building owners in this regard with its newly released Decision Support Tool. The web-based tool provides guidance on energy-efficient renovation, allowing for a comparison of various retrofit concepts as they apply to the building in question. This makes it easier for those involved in the construction process to find a suitable retrofit concept for their building at the start of the planning phase. The Decision Support Tool is now available in English, free of charge.

In an energy-efficient renovation, the individual renovation steps must be well coordinated so that energy consumption is actually significantly lower later on and living comfort is noticeably higher. The outPHit project partners have developed the Decision Support Tool in addition to guidelines and tools on various aspects of energy efficiency in renovation to support those wishing to renovate with an overview of the possible approaches. This provides owners  as well as architects and planning experts  with an initial overview of possible refurbishment approaches for the building in question during the initial planning phase.

Providing orientation
"With the variety of options for energy-efficient retrofits, those involved are often spoilt for choice. This is precisely where the Decision Support Tool comes into play, as it presents possible directions for the specific building right from the start. This makes it easier to decide on the next steps in the renovation process," explains the Passive House Institute’s Jan Steiger, project coordinator of outPHit. “Highly efficient components also used in building modernisation make it possible to achieve the EnerPHit standard, the efficiency standard for renovations with Passive House components," Steiger continues.

A solid foundation
The tool only requires very general and easy to access information about the building such as construction year, basic floor plan, orientation and construction method. Users can also indicate the importance of energy efficiency, sustainability and costs within the framework of the renovation project. The Decision Support Tool then presents various conceptual solutions for energy improvements and their respective effects as well as further information on high energy efficiency. The tool’s results thus provide a basis for further planning with energy consulting experts.

Free to use
The Decision Support Tool is available free of charge on the outPHit website and in the Passive House Institute's Passipedia knowledge database.

FURTHER INFORMATION

• Decision Support Tool
• outPHit Case Study Projects
• Information on the EnerPHit standard
• Brochure Renovating with Passive House components 
• Press release as pdf

PRESS RELEASES IN OTHER LANGUAGES

• Spanish: Primeros pasos para facilitar una rehabilitación profunda
• French: OutPHit soutient la planification de grands projets de rénovation avec son nouvel outil d’aide à la décision
• Dutch: Eerste stappen voor een grondige renovatie
• German: Erste Schritte Richtung Sanierung erleichtern

CONTACT
Katrin Krämer, Passive House Institute
+49 6151 826 99 25
presse@passiv.de

Photo: ©Passive House Institute