"Out of the Blue" Passive House

Built in 2004, Tomás O’Leary's "out of the blue" house in Wicklow was the first in the country to be certified by the Passive House Institute. It was designed by MosArt Architecture and is officially certified as a Passive House by the German Passive House Institute and is being intensively monitored by the Energy Research Group at UCD for a period of two years to measure performance in terms of energy efficiency. The house is extensively featured in the recent SEI Passive House Guidelines and has provided inspiration for many others to build passive Houses in Ireland. 

 

The passive house concept is based on minimizing heat losses and maximizing heat gains from the home. This is achieved through reducing heat loss with insulation and by making the house airtight, and increase heat gains by maximizing solar heat gains through design & orientation. The house is 365 m2 with average ceiling heights of 2.7m. It is a 2-storey Single family detached dwelling with 5 occupants.  The house construction comprises a 225mm concrete block wall externally clad with 315mm of polystyrene insulation, achieving high thermal mass. The buildings glazing compromises triple glazed window units with u-values of 0.6 W/m2K. The frames are thermally broken and made from wood. The floor construction has 315mm of Polystyrene insulation below a 150mm concrete slab. The house is passively heated and utilizes a heat recovery ventilation system . A biomass wood pellet stove is used as a backup heating system in case of extreme conditions.