Passive House and Permaculture
The definitions of each of these terms are appropriately long and complicated. The essence of the matter is that these are design approaches that aim to transform human impact on the environment into a system that cares for the earth and all of it’s inhabitants equally. Passive House is a specific goal of energy use reduction in buildings, and Permaculture is a goal of energy balance that applies to our entire ecosystem, and is mostly widely applied to food production. I would like to illuminate, in ever-evolving Permaculture terminology, how a Passive House fits into the Permaculture strategy.
Currently there are twelve Permaculture principles:
1. observe & interact
2. catch and store energy
3. obtain a yield
4. apply self-regulation & accept feedback
5. use & value renewable resources & services
6. produce no waste
7. design from patterns to details
8. integrate rather than segregate
9. use small and slow solutions
10. use and value diversity
11. use edges and value the marginal
12. creatively use & respond to change
These principles are referenced from permacultureprinciples.com
Image via Glacial Lakes Permaculture
There is one principle in particular for which Passive Houses are known. You guessed it, #2. In cold climates, Passive House structures are geared towards capturing energy from the sun and then keeping it in the building for as long as it possibly can. The largest percentage of windows face South to take advantage of the low angle of the sun in the winter and the house is very well insulated and air tight (with filtered ventilation.)
Permaculture practitioners rely heavily on observation of nature to learn efficiency in energy use. This is because nature’s systems work without external input and extractions that humans have come to rely on in producing what we need. One of the principles of nature that we can draw from is that all things in nature have multiple functions. A popular phrase for this is “stacking functions”. A tree can provide food, shade, cooling, bio-mass, beauty, oxygen, building materials, protection from wind, habitat, etc. This is a great lesson for architects and builders because we can reduce building costs by combining multiple functions into one material.
For instance, GO Logic’s typical foundation detail consists of a thick layer of insulation that not only conserves energy in the home, it serves as a form for the concrete as it is poured. The concrete itself has multiple functions. It serves as a foundation for the home, is polished and finished to serve as a floor, and it provides thermal mass to balance temperature swings that the building experiences in the course of a day. In the summer, the slab can cool the home in the daytime, and in the winter it can release heat into the building that it has gained on a sunny day through South facing windows.
Small backyards are a common starting point for people practicing Permaculture. We all eat food, and many of us like to know where it comes from and perhaps even grow it ourselves. The great thing about Permaculture gardens is that with smart planning, the garden is supposed to do most of it’s own work once it is established – it’s a garden that pays for itself. This is exactly what a Passive House is made to do. It works with the sun for you, and eventually pays for itself in energy savings.
-Svea Tulberg is a Certified Passive House Consultant and Junior Associate at GO Logic, with a personal interest in permaculture, beekeeping and her community.
