Passivhaus standards largely have to do with how tight a building envelope is, how well a building holds a steady temperature, and how many air exchanges are needed per hour. Many design elements, including window size and placement, wall thickness and material, etc. can impact this. Consistency of insulation is very important because hot air will always try to displace cold air, so gaps in insulation can create a chimney effect and cause air exchange requirements to increase.
In our case, we are using straw bales and plaster for our wall insulation. A big question that Katie and I are interested to answer in our build is whether straw bale walls will be tight and consistent enough to achieve passive house certification (US or international). The main concern is on the seams of the bales. We will, of course, try to pack the bales as tightly as possible. No matter how tight we pack them, though, there will still be small seams between the bales. Will those small seams be too much to meet the passive certification? Check back with us after the build to find out! If you have more questions about this, let us know in the comments below!
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AuthorKatie Jones and Peter Schmitt chronicle their building adventure. Archives
January 2024
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