About SitePass

The original aim of this blog was to contribute to a collaborative learning space for Passive House Design and Construction in Ireland. It has been funded by the National Academy for the Integration of Research into Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL). This is a continusing collaborative effort between the Department of Building and Civil Engineering at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and industry partners, Passive House Builders and McGann Scahill Architects.

I have decided to expand the purpose of the SitePass blog by using it as a learning space for all issues related to future building solutions for a resource efficient society. It still will contain relevant Passive House design and construction posts but will now include the wide range of issues related to future building solutions and resource efficiency.

Links update on SitePass Blog

A number of links have been posted on the SitePass Blog (at the bottom of the page) to provide a general resource for those interested in Passive House Design and Construction.

First Steps Passive Article - Example of Blog Contribution for M.Sc. students

In the article 'First Steps: What can be a passive house in your region with your climate?', Wolfgang Feist  of the Passive Institute in Germany, advises that passive house details must be specific to individual climatic and geographical regions especially considering the local building traditions and climatic conditions. He highlights examples of applying Californian passive solar design principles to buildings in central Europe resulting in buildings which were designed for large solar gains that did not exist.

He proposes that the 'Zero Energy House' concept would add an unacceptable cost to a project as he sees no extra benefit being gained by increasing efficiencies beyond the 10W/m² target. He maintains that the environmental impact is minimal even considering the use of fossil fuels including oil, gas or coal as the energy demand is so low throughout the lifespan of the project.

NUIG Energy Night 26th January 2011

Presented the poster above on the SitePass project at the NUIG Energy night. Lots in interesting research work going on in NUIG. Some projects that caught my eye were: Web-Based Building Energy Usage Visualisation; Embodied Energy Analysis and Visualisation Tool; and the Creation of a Living Laboratory for Engineering at NUI Galway. Donall Dowd, our current Ph.D. student also presented a poster on our EPA-funded project 'The Development of A Waste Prevention Design Tool for Architects and Designers'.