02.04.2025

Building your home to the Passive House standard

Baufritz is a pioneering manufacturer of sustainable, low-energy homes built to the passive house standard. But what does that mean? Passive house (or Passivhaus in German) refers to an energy efficiency standard developed by the Passive House Institute in Germany for buildings with a reduced energy consumption combined with a high level of comfort. The walls, floors and roof of a passive house must have u-values of 0.15 W/(m²K) or less. The u-value measures the overall rate of heat transfer. This requires an airtightness of ≤ 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 Pa (Pascal) – 20 times more than a conventional build. To achieve this, a passive house must have excellent insulation, high-performance windows, heat recovery ventilation, and an airtight construction – all standard features of Baufritz homes.

The passive house standard also has an influence on the design and construction of a house, such as the arrangement and size of the windows. Baufritz is experienced in designing energy efficient houses and has already built several houses certified with the passive house standard. For full certification, relevant documentation must be submitted for validation to a certifier accredited by the Passive House Institute.

If you wish to build to the Passivhaus standard, we will design your home according to passive house principles and incorporate our patented Baufritz AAA wall. This 46-cm-thick wall achieves an outstanding thermal insulation value of 0.14 W/(m²K), making it ideal for PlusEnergy, solar, or passive houses.

If you are interested in building a passive house in the UK, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Learn about our patented wall system