Active house concept versus passive House

The passive house concept is the present trend in energy efficient sustainable dwellings. Within the passive house concept every effort is made to minimize the energy use. Substantial savings can be achieved by passive energy systems, especially natural ventilation, summer shading and winter solar heat gain. The development of sustainable buildings is driven by the need to preserve the balance of nature. The ventilation capacity of many of these passive houses is critical. During a three week period different measurements in three of the first passive houses projects in Netherlands were undertaken to define indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Results showed that in some cases ventilation was completely insufficient. Energy saving and sustainability is very important but not at the risk of endangering health of the occupants. This was the starting point for a new approach, which led to an alternative concept: the active house concept. By using ground air collectors, labyrinth foundation, muro-causter and hypo-causter, the whole building envelope and construction is thermally activated by natural pre-cooled air in the summer and natural pre-heated air in winter. A first design is presented to illustrate the concept.