I've about to leave for Leipzig to learn more about the new Passive House certification levels: Plus and Premium. These include new calculations for Primary Energy that appear to be wrapping much more than simply renewable energy sources into the calculus of Passive House. Here's a great article that provides a good introduction: http://passipedia.org/certification/passive_house_categories/classic-plus-premium?s[]=primary&s[]=energy&s[]=renewables.
This is all very new and exciting and I'm still wrapping my head around this shift. The big new inclusion is obviously credits for renewable energy sources. These have all been assigned 'factors' that account for their seasonal availability and storage capacity (eg. biofuel has a higher 'storage' capacity than PV since wood pellets can be burned 'where the sun don't shine.') However, what I'm most intrigued by, based on my early understanding, is that it looks like this new PER calculation also directly incentivizes water efficiency - something we in California critically need to focus on. As the above Passipedia article explains, buildings that typically require large amounts of hot water will need to carefully address water use via reduction in order to meet these new efficiency classes. (The various manufacturers of drain waste heat recovery systems will be pleased to see they're included, along with a big boost for Heat Pumps.) It also looks like the PER calculation does a much better job of calculating real energy use offsets for winter consumption, where many 'fudge' the calculations by relying on grid connection for summer generation 'storage' that doesn't account for primary energy use during winter peak loads.
Now that I'm getting to understand these new Plus and Premium Passive House standards, I like how they encourage water saving and provide a more equitable way to account for renewable energy inputs. In the meanwhile, I've been reading loads of interesting discussions all directly and tangentially related to this topic. Here are links to a few articles:
The Demise of Utilities as We Know Them: http://www.greenbiz.com/article/utilities-are-you-ready-solar-plus-storage-going-take-over-says-rmi-solarcity
Battery Storage- The Numbers Don't Add Up - Yet: http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/battery-storage-the-numbers-dont-add-up-yet-97438 (see the two additional follow up articles that are linked in the top of this one.)
Storage is the New Solar: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/featured/Storage-Is-the-New-Solar-Will-Batteries-and-PV-Create-an-Unstoppable-Hybri
I'll be curious to hear other's thoughts on this subject? Will Tesla's new battery factory shift the whole market enough to change the PV-battery-grid tie debate? More relevant to planners, designers and architects, will the new American 'great room' now be filled with batteries?
The future is so infinitely interesting....
Bronwyn
PS. A number of us attending Leipzig will be happy to share our experiences and information in an attempt to offset our flight carbon. If you're on Twitter, I'll be live-tweeting as much of the event as possible. My twitter-feed is @passivehousebb. Alternatively, tune in to @naphn_info for additional updates, of follow the hashtag #iphc19. Shed loads of fun!
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