Passive House
Passive House | Passivhaus
MBC Timber Frame | Passivhaus House
Eco-Friendly Passive House Design and Builders in Gloucestershire, UK
At MBC Timber Frame, we specialise in designing and building eco-friendly Passive Houses in our home county of Gloucestershire and across the UK. If you’re looking for experienced, high-quality eco-friendly Passive House builders, then you’re in the right place.
A Passive House or Passivhaus is a precisely engineered and detailed structure that is highly insulated, cold bridge free and requires less energy demand for space heating and cooling. With hundreds of eco builds successfully completed, we have developed a solid reputation as one of the leading Passive House construction contractors in the UK.
Building a Passive House does not cost extra in the long term as there is no need to install a complex heating and cooling system. Finances saved are invested into essential Passive House Elements, the cost of which is quickly recouped within a few years of building completion.
Keep reading to find out how we design and build our Passive Houses, their benefits in terms of environmental and financial cost-savings, and their technical details and components. View some of our previous eco build projects across the UK and get in touch with us today to discuss your eco-friendly Passive House project with us.
Passive House Non Structural Essential Elements
Keep reading to find out how we design and build our Passive Houses, their benefits in terms of environmental and financial cost-savings, and their technical details and components. View some of our previous eco build projects across the UK and get in touch with us today to discuss your eco-friendly Passive House project with us.
A Passive House is fitted with a variety of non structural high performance essential elements, which include:
- Triple Glazed Windows
- Thermal Insulation Barrier
- Airtight Membrane & Tapes
- Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery (MVHR)
Passive House | Passivhaus Components
Passive Foundation
MBC’s passive foundation is a PassiveHaus certified system, designed to thermally encase the foundation in high performance expanded polystyrene (EPS)… ensuring a quality passive house standard
Passive Wall
Delivering a U-Value of 0.12W/m2K and designed to perform to its optimum level when used in tandem with our Passive Foundation system…
Passive Roof
400mm thickness of Cellulose Roof Insulation is precision fitted to overlap with the 300mm Cellulose Insulation of the Passive Twin Wall System…
Airtight System
Air tightness is achieved with the careful application of an internal airtight membrane sheeting, which overlaps at joints and junctions, and is sealed with airtight tape…
All opaque building components of the exterior envelope of the eco house must be very well-insulated. This means a heat transfer coefficient (U-value) of 0.15 W/(m²K) at the most, i.e. a maximum of 0.15 watts per degree of temperature difference and per square metre of exterior surface are lost.
Passive House Windows
In all of our eco builds, the window frames are well insulated and fitted with low-e glazings filled with argon or krypton to prevent heat transfer. This is achieved by a U-value of 0.80 W/(m²K) or less, with g-values around (g-value= total solar transmittance, proportion of the solar energy available for the room).
Passivhaus Ventilation Heat Recovery
An efficient ventilation system is key, allowing for a good air quality and being energy efficient. In a Passive House, heat from the exhaust air is transferred to the fresh air again by means of a heat exchanger.
Airtightness of the Eco House
Uncontrolled leakage through gaps must be smaller than 0.6 of the total house volume per hour during a pressure test at 50 Pascal (both pressurised and depressurised). This is the result of using the best Passive House Components.
Absence of Thermal Bridges
All edges, corners, connections and penetrations must be planned and executed with great care, so that thermal bridges can be avoided throughout our Passive Houses. Thermal bridges which cannot be avoided must be minimised as far as possible.
MBC Passive Foundation & Slab System
Our passive foundation and slab is a PassivHaus certified system, designed to thermally encase the foundation in high performance expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation, which delivers the lowest U-Value currently available at 0.105W/m2K.
The MBC Passive House Wall system delivers a U-Value of 0.12W/m2K and is designed to perform to its optimum level when used in tandem with our Passive Foundation & Slab system.
The MBC Passive House Roof system delivers a U-Value of 0.10W/m2K and is suitable for all roof designs (flat, pitch, barrel vault, etc), ensuring your desired eco building design remains unchanged.
Passive House Technical Details
View a detailed cross section diagram of our Passive House Twin Wall system…
Thermal Envelope Insulation
Information about the high levels of insulation “thermal envelope” and “thermal bridging”…
Passive House Blower Door Test
Airtight Home Standards
Information about the Passive House Blower Door Test…
Passive Ventilation
Understanding “MVHR” – Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery…
Discuss your project with us
MBC specialise in the production of Timber Frame Passive House Buildings and High Thermal Efficiency Timber Frame Houses throughout the UK, Fulfil your dream of a self built home and benefit from huge energy savings and reduce their heating demands by up to 90%.
What you Get
Passive House Essential Elements
Non Structural Elements of our Passive Homes
Thermal insulation
All opaque building components of the exterior envelope of the house must have high levels of insulation This means a heat transfer coefficient (U-value) of 0.15 W/(m²K) at the most, i.e. a maximum of 0.15 watts per degree of temperature difference and per square metre of exterior surface are lost.
Passive House Windows
The window frames must have high levels of insulation and fitted with low-e glazings filled with argon or krypton to prevent heat transfer. This is achieved by a U-value of 0.80 W/(m²K) or less, with g-values around 50% (g-value= total solar transmittance, proportion of the solar energy available for the room).
Ventilation Heat Recovery
Efficient Heat Recovery is key, allowing for a good indoor air quality and saving energy consumption. In Passive House, at least 75% of the heat from the exhaust air is transferred to the fresh air again by means of a heat exchanger.
Airtightness of the building
Uncontrolled leakage through gaps must be smaller than 0.6 of the total house volume per hour during a pressure test at 50 Pascal (both pressurised and depressurised).
Structural Elements of our Passive Homes
Absence of Thermal Bridges
All edges, corners, connections and penetrations must be planned and executed with great care, so that thermal bridges can be avoided. Thermal bridges which cannot be avoided must be minimised as far as possible.
Passive Foundations
Our Passive Foundation and slab is a PassiveHaus certified system, designed to thermally encase the foundation in high performance expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation, which delivers the lowest U-Vaule currently available at 0.105W/m2K.
Passive Wall System
The MBC Passive Wall system delivers a U-Value of 0.12W/m2K and is designed to perform to its optimum level when used in tandem with our Passive Foundation & Slab system.
