Case studies

Energy Efficiency Case Study: Waldsee-BioHaus - Certified Passive House in North America

The rising prices of raw materials and the increasing scarcity of energy resources are two major factors affecting our daily lives. It is only logical that the level of interest in innovative and future-oriented energy-saving solutions, which in turn also help to keep carbon dioxide emissions down, is on the rise. One area that harbours great potential for improving energy efficiency is the consumption of heat in buildings. Taking the USA as an example, buildings and construction-related activities (use and operation, rebuilding, manufacture and transport of products) are responsible for 48 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Thanks to today's modern building techniques, the amount of energy consumed in buildings as a whole can be reduced to an impressively low level, as demonstrated by the Waldsee BioHaus in Minnesota. This so-called passive house, which was built in accordance with the Passive House Standard devised by the German Passive House Institute, consumes 85 percent less energy than comparable buildings in the USA.