AxisDesign Architects in Birmingham have come up with an affordable passive house design which they think could make this energy saving home affordable to everyone because of its low cost.
How a passive house works - diagram from Wikipedia
A passive house (which AxisDesign call passivhaus, in German) is a house which is designed to run on ultra-low energy and built to specific standards set by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany.
Passive house heat loss picture from Wikipedia - the dark blue shows little heat loss
A Yorkshire self-build passive house
A couple in Denby Dale, South Yorkshire have self-built a Passive House using traditional building skills and methods, including a stone outer wall. There is a very informative article about it on Mark Brinkley’s blog, as well as a diary of the Denby Dale Passive house build on the Green Building Store website.
Denby Dale Passive House - photo credit: passivhaustrust.org.uk
Passivhaus standard and design tool
The AECB (which I think stands for Association for Environment Conscious Building) is the Sustainable Building Association. It develops & publishes standards for sustainable building, and delivers training, including on the use of the Passivhaus standard and design tool. Find out more on the AECB’s CarbonLite pages.