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Energy, Carbon and the Passivhaus

In a 2015 conference paper [1], a comparison is made between both the embodied energy and the lifetime operational energy of two houses; one real, built to Passivihaus (PH) standards and the other notional, and conforming to UK building regulations Part L. Section 3.3 of the paper gives energy figures for both buildings: the PH embodied 1795 GJ of energy, and the Part L house1460 GJ; operational energy over fifty years was 6004 GJ for the PH, and 7451 GJ for the Part L building. While the PH embodied more energy, this was more than offset over time by the saving in operational energy. The paper does not quantify the associated equivalent CO2 emissions of the energy, and in view of the progressive decarbonisation of the UK’s energy supply, it seems likely that in terms of CO2e, the net advantage of the PH may be less that would appear from the energy figures alone. In order to compare the embodied and the operational CO2e emissions of the Passivhaus, projected emission factors ar