Comparison of building performance between Conventional House and Passive House in the UK

The building performance monitored over one year of a Conventional House and a Passive House in North East England is presented in this paper. These two houses which differ in building fabric, the type of ventilation and thermal storage, the use of different energy and residents’ occupancy result in distinct building energy performance and indoor air quality. According to the measurement data, the primary energy demand of the Conventional House and Passive House were 169.85 kWh/(m2a) and 64.11 kWh/(m2a) while the annual average indoor temperature of the two properties maintained at 17.7°C and 22.0°C, respectively. A simulation study was conducted by DesignBuilder software to improve the Conventional House’s energy and indoor environmental performance using passive retrofitting methods, aiming to reduce the primary energy demand, the space heating demand of the property and enhance its general indoor air environmental performance. The DesignBuilder models were validated by monitored data and used to predict the performance of the Conventional House after retrofitting, and then compared it with the Passive House. The results indicate the reduction of space heating demand is by about 80% compared to its current status. The findings showed that there was a huge potential for conventional house retrofitting using passive energy saving methods in northern England.