A guide to trustworthy heat pump design

A new Passivhaus Trust guide to air-to-water heat pumps aims to highlight some of the complex aspects of design that are sometimes missed by experienced engineers, says Warm’s Sally Godber

Case study: Passivhaus Plus Hackbridge Primary School

Hackbridge Primary is the first Passivhaus Plus-certified school, setting a new standard for sustainable design and operational efficiency. Andy Pearson talks to members of the project team about the award-winning scheme

Current thinking: connecting a large all-electric housing estate in West London

To connect the all-electric Convent Way Passivhaus scheme to the constrained local grid in West London, the project team has reduced the load estimate by 53% compared with the conventional Rule of Thumb calculation method. Andy Pearson speaks to QODA Consulting’s Henry Metcalfe about how this was achieved

Perfecting Passivhaus: Max Fordham’s experience of the fabric-first building method

Max Fordham has been designing Passivhaus projects for nine years, including two very different housing projects that won the residential CIBSE Building Performance Award in consecutive years. Gwilym Still chronicles the development of Passivhaus at the practice, and explains why it is integral to Max Fordham’s net zero strategy

Agar Grove: measuring the performance of a Passivhaus winner

The success of Agar Grove at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards was in part due to the focus on controlling overheating and minimising plant heat losses. Andy Pearson finds out how the Passivhaus approach helped tackle fuel poverty

Passivhaus rules

City of York Council is the latest local authority to strive for Passivhaus housing. Leda’s Jim Wild explains why the methodology is gaining traction

Testing the water – designing the UK’s first Passivhaus swimming pool

The UK’s first Passivhaus swimming pool, currently being developed by Exeter City Council, seeks to halve energy use and create a chemical-free, healthy environment. Andy Pearson speaks to project team members about the innovative design that aims to set new Passivhaus standards for pools

The Passivhaus that Max Fordham built

Max Fordham’s Passivhaus house features automated insulated shutters, developed to reduce night-time heat losses and to achieve an energy balance between gains and losses on a cold winter’s night. Liza Young reports