Energy performance and lessons learned from detailed measurement of a passive house preschool in cold climate

• Public passive house buildings are rare in high northern latitudes. This study reports on extensive measurements and evaluations of the most northerly (640 N) built passive house preschool in Sweden. The two storied preschool, built in 2014, has a total heated floor area of 1407 m2. The building was certified according to the international passive house standard. The building has several smart solutions such as demand controlled ventilation of individual rooms and automatic solar shading system.Energy measurements conducted during 2017-2018 showed that the preschool annually uses 44.4 kWhm-2, which is approximately 25 % lower than the passive house requirement for energy demand. However, the annual specific space heating requirement of 15 kWhm-2 and the peak heat power demand of 10 Wm-2 were not fulfilled. This non-compliance was mainly due to excessive ventilation during the heating season which was found to have 2.7 times higher air changes than the requirement in the Swedish building code. Furthermore, the building was found to be over heated from the sun during several occasions in a year. For example, excessive indoor air temperatures in the range 28 – 31°C were found during summer.The study revealed that the default winter operation by turning off the ventilation system during nights and weekends is continued in other seasons as well. This practice was not a “smart” approach for the air handling units as it was found to be one of the reasons for high indoor temperatures during non-winter months. Also, a mismatch between the operation of the automatic shading device and the ventilation control units was noted.The investigation shows that smart technical solutions in buildings may not be able to deliver its’ promised results if such systems are not monitored, adjusted and carefully evaluated. The paper identifies areas that need attention to ensure that a public building built to passive house standard actually deliver the energy efficiency it promises.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik -- Energisystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering -- Energy Systems (hsv//eng)

Keyword

passive houses

energy measurement

building energy certification

energy efficiency action plans

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)