Passivhaus
THE WORLD’S LEADING ENERGY AND COMFORT STANDARD
Contents Introducing Elementa Consulting
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Our Passivhaus Services
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Experience 8
Front Cover: The Heights at 388 Skeena I Vancouver’s first major passivhaus certified development © Cornerstone Architecture/ Gordan Dumka Left: Soo Valley Residence I An off-grid, passivhaus certified, mass timber residence © Perkins and Will
Our Global Passivhaus Team
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The Elementa Way
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Introducing Elementa Consulting
The world’s leading deep green engineering and consulting firm
Elementa Consulting are the UK member of Integral Group, an international network of engineers + consultants collaborating under a single “deep green” umbrella. Integral are pioneers of high performance engineering at building and district scales, and leaders in the crafting of sustainable strategy, planning and policy.
Kevin Hydes Integral Group was launched in 2008 by Kevin Hydes, founder and former director of Canada Green Building Council, and former Chair of the USGBC and World GBC. Kevin served as Chief Executive Officer for the first 12 years of Integral Group and in 2020 he became the firm’s first Chairman.
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Our award-winning projects with clients in over 30 countries prove that healthy, happy and resource-efficient buildings need not cost the earth. Integral are founding signatories of the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Commitment, and engineers of over 100 Net Zero Energy buildings. 4
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Our Passivhaus Services Passivhaus facilities allow for the potential of heating and cooling energy savings of up to 90% compared with typical building stock, and over 75% potential energy savings compared with average new builds. It is also the world’s leading comfort standard, which focuses first and foremost on the building occupants’ health and wellness by ensuring the building has a continuous supply of superior fresh air, free from draughts, cold spots, and noise pollution. As a leader in designing climate-positive and energy-efficient buildings, Elementa houses one of the largest passivhaus design teams globally. Our team has delivered passivhaus design and consulting services for educational facilities, residential developments, corporate offices, visitor centres and community hubs.
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Passivhaus Consulting PHPP Each passivhaus project requires adequate planning and research up front at the initial stages of the project. As the design approach will vary according to location and geographical factors, each project will be truly unique. Elementa can provide passivhaus design, support and certification services. This includes guidance for the building envelope consultant and architect for building orientation and massing, glazing ratios, shading, envelope detailing and minimum performance requirements.
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Calculation PHPP (Passivhaus Planning Package) is best used as a design tool throughout the PH certification process. If used early in the design process it will play a significant role in informing the building design and providing accurate metrics on how the building will eventually perform. Additionally, the PHPP also predicts comfort and energy consumption very accurately for low energy buildings.
Thermal Bridging Analysis
Natural Ventilation Design
Air Permeability Testing
Up to one-third of a building’s energy can be lost through thermal bridges in structures without thermal breaks.
Natural ventilation uses wind and thermal buoyancy to create air movement in and out of a building without the use of mechanical systems. Ventilation is important as it reduces unhealthy air pollutants and reduces excessive moisture and humidity levels, which can lead to mould growth and can cause structural damage.
Air Permeability testing will detect areas where a building is wasting energy, by detecting air leakage. Including this service as part of the passivhaus design certification will assist in verifying the performance of your building.
Reducing heat loss via thermal bridging decreases heating demand and improves occupant thermal comfort. It also mitigates the risk of condensation on interior surfaces, thereby improving occupant health, as well as the durability and longevity of the building.
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Improved indoor environment
Reduced health issues resulting from air pollution and a lack of insulation
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Lower maintenance of mechanical systems
Improved overall energy efficiency
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Lower Energy costs
The benefits of natural ventilation design include: • • •
Additional benefits of blower door testing include:
Reduced equipment costs
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Experience
Charter Telecom Office
3100 Me
8th & Pine Development
Valleyview Town Hall
University of Victoria Student Housing
eadowbrook Affordable Housing
Gastown Childcare Facility
Hornby Island Fire Hall
West Bay at Radcliffe
1075 Nelson
Clayton Community Centre
Clayton Community Centre is North America’s first Passivhaus Certified community centre, and Canada’s largest Passivhaus facility to date.
The community centre was built in response to the population and development growth in the Clayton neighbourhood of Surrey, BC. The development of a new community hub was proposed in 2014. The new 76,000 ft² community hub integrates visual and performing arts, a 13,000 ft² neighbourhood library, indoor basketball, volleyball and badminton courts, full gymnasium, fitness centre, and outdoor recreation spaces. The two-story centre serves as an eco-friendly facility that offers programs for all ages, all cultures, and all fitness levels.
This facility also includes day-care and multipurpose rooms. Working with Turnbull Construction and HCMA Architecture + Design, Integral Group provided mechanical services for this Passivhaus recreation facility project. To view an animation designed and developed by Integral Group showcasing Clayton Community Centre’s airtight construction, high performance glazing and super insulated, thermal-bridge free building envelope, please click the screen below:
VISUALIZATION
Top: Exterior photograph of Clayton Community Centre © Integral Group/ Catherine Chan Bottom Left: Interior photograph of Clayton Community Centre © Integral Group/ Catherine Chan Bottom Right: Interior photograph of Clayton Community Centre © Integral Group/ Catherine Chan
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Location: Surrey, BC Canada Client: Turnball Construction Architect: HCMA Architecture + Design Construction Value: $50 M Completion: 2020 Area: 76,000 SF Key Features: Passivhaus Certified Natural Ventilation Radiant Panels Air Source Heat Pumps High Efficient Heat Recovery Ventilation Innovative Glulam Structure (Glued Laminated Timber) Services Provided: Mechanical 10
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Hackbridge Primary School
Hackbridge is a new build primary school for 420 pupils aged 5-11 built next to the pioneering BedZED One Planet Living development. It is the UK’s first Passivhaus Plus certified facility and the first true net zero carbon school (regulated and unregulated).
To achieve Net Zero Carbon the design applies rigorous Passivhaus building envelope insulation and air tightness requirements, with triple glazed windows that enhance thermal comfort and provide excellent daylighting. Dynamic thermal modelling was carried out to ensure the orientation of the building was optimised for solar gains, reducing the risk of overheating and minimising cooling requirements. Essential to the success of this project was the commitment to Net Zero by all stakeholders. Therefore, careful consideration was taken by architects and engineers, to select materials that are healthy, have low embodied energy and are easy to construct and maintain. This included the use of significant amounts of recycled materials. A highly efficient ground source heat pump (GSHP) system with inter-seasonal heat storage meets space heating demands and majority of domestic hot water demands.
To meet summer peaks and provide resiliency against climate change, the system also has a parallel heat exchanger to enable free cooling to be extracted from the ground. By extracting free cooling from the bore holes during the summer, this enables more efficient operation of the GSHP during winter and reduces energy demand overall. The building relies on a central air handling unit to distribute fresh air throughout the occupied rooms. The air is transferred from the occupied rooms to the main hall and WC rooms for extraction. This allows the overall volume of fresh air to be optimised and allows heat to be recovered from the whole building. Occupied rooms operate on a mixed mode basis so that the use of natural ventilation is encouraged when external temperatures are moderate. A rooftop PV array provides renewable electricity to offset 100% annual energy demands, solar thermal panels meeting 80% of hot water needs. Location: London, UK Client: London Borough of Sutton Architect: Architype Construction Value: £10M Completion: 2019 Area: 2,000 SQM (GIA) Key Features: Passivhaus Plus One Planet Living Strategy
Right: Hackbridge Primary School © studiostagg
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Services Provided: Mechanical Electrical Public Health Energy Modelling Environmental Design 12
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The Limestone House Integral Group worked together with urban design experts John Wardle Architects to accomplish the specific environmental agendas of this project: To design the residence following Passivhaus and Living Building Challenge principles.
This energy efficient residence was designed for a client with two passions in mind: contemporary architecture and cutting edge sustainability. The self-sufficient home achieves the core objectives of sustainability standards, within the context of Melbourne’s mild climate, greater variation in temperature and higher solar gains. Energy efficiencies are achieved by introducing the 5 main principles of: High Efficiency Glazing, High Level Insulation, Thermal bridgefree envelope, Airtightness and Ventilation. The project team worked to deliver a seamless living environment by cladding the house with Mt Gambier limestone and other natural minerals, combined with technology that performed above regular sustainability standards to meet the client’s brief. The project aimed to source as much of the materials from locations close to the site, and all timber products used are
Top: Exterior photograph of Limestone House © John Wardle Architects Bottom Left: Interior photograph of Limeston House © John Wardle Architects Bottom Right: Exterior photograph of Limestone House © John Wardle Architects
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durable recycled Australian hardwoods. The Mt Gambier limestone cladding, siltstone floor tiling, recycled spotted gum and blackbutt timber flooring were directly sourced from parts of South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. For further north elevation in the stone surface, additional openings were carved out in front of a significant outdoor space, providing north sun that shines deep into the floor plan. These spaces allow for a unique connection to the backyard garden, and additional views of the house surrounds. With Integral Group being one of the first commercial consultancies in the Australian market to promote the Passivhaus Standard, our team’s integrated approach to The Limestone House Project saw our engineers apply unparalleled expertise to the building technology, and further challenged conventional building and design practice.
Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia Architect: John Wardle Architects Completion: 2019 Area: 675 SQM Key Features: Passivhaus principles Living Building Challenge principles Services Provided: Mechanical Electrical 14
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University of Toronto Scarborough Student Residence The University of Toronto Scarborough student residence will be Canada’s largest Passivhaus project when complete. The University of Toronto Scarborough Campus (UTSC) is constructing a new dormitorystyle student residence on the UTSC campus to address increasing demand for on-campus accommodation. The proposed multi-storey residence building will be built north of Ellesmere Road and east of the planned rerouted Military Trail, a space that is currently occupied by 358 parking spaces. The 750-bed residence will include a mix of private and dormitory style accommodations. Additionally, the space will house a new 250-seat campus dining hall with kitchen facilities, commercial retail space, as well as student support and academic services,
including the Student Housing and Residence Life offices. Integral Group is providing services as part of a Project Design and Compliance (PDC) team. Passivhaus standards have been incorporated into the Performance Output Specifications to ensure the building achieves very high energy efficiency. The building will feature air side heat recovery, variable refrigeration flow (VRF) systems, demand control kitchen ventilation and a highly insulated building envelope leading to reduced mechanical and electrical loads. It will also be Canada’s largest Passivhaus project to date when complete.
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada Client: University of Toronto Architect: Handel Architects/ Core Architects Area: 270,200 SF Key Features: Passivhaus LEED Silver Right: Renderings of UTSC Student Residence © Handel Architects
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Services Provided: Mechanical Electrical Energy Modelling 16
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Vancouver Fire Hall 17 Redevelopment
When complete, Vancouver Fire Hall 17 will offer a 99.67% reduction in operational carbon emissions compared to the existing Fire Hall
This 19,375 ft² fire hall is the first Zero Carbon Building design (ZCB) certified fire hall in Canada, and the very first ZCB certified project in British Columbia. The Integral team was able to incorporate a number of design synergies to achieve the project’s ambitious sustainability goals. The mechanical systems consist of a geo-exchange field coupled with ground source heat pumps that distribute heating and cooling water throughout the building. The high-performance building envelope allows for the geo-exchange field to be a fifth of the size when compared to an equivalent building built to minimum code standards.
This strategy allowed the team to tunnel through the cost barrier of building envelope upgrades such as photo-chromatic glazing which further reduced cooling energy demand and respected the architect’s vision for Fire Hall 17’s aesthetic and form. With the help of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities funding, Fire Hall 17 is installing a 95 kW solar photovoltaic array to help achieve net-zero energy in operation. The solar photovoltaic array provides the all-electric post-disaster fire hall the ability to remain operationally resilient in the wake of disaster by vastly reducing its reliance on the grid.
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada Architect: HCMA Architecture + Design Construction Value: $13M Completion: 2022 Area: 19,375 SF Key Features: Passivhaus LEED v4 Gold CaGBC Zero Carbon Certified Net Zero Energy in Operation - FCM Right: Rendering of Vancouver Fire Hall 17 © HCMA Architecture + Design
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Services Provided: Mechanical Electrical 18
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Our Global Passivhaus Team Our team can help you to identify your vision for a sustainable project Our experts work with the project team to identify costeffective, low life cycle and durable building systems to suit each unique location and facility. Our goal is to apply as many passive building design approaches as possible to reduce the need for extensive mechanical building comfort systems and to increase indoor environmental quality. We seek to minimise system complexity and make best use of the local microclimate synergies. This requires technological innovation and the application of greater effort than what would be required for a reactive application of conventional building design and mechanical systems.
Stuart Hood Regional Director, BC Stuart is the Regional Director for Integral Group’s western Canada region. His experience in mechanical engineering spans over 25 years and covers a wide range of projects across the globe. Stuart is a certified passivhaus consultant and designer whose passion for sustainability began during his academic years in Europe. He is proactive in following sustainability practices to seek out progressive technologies and strategies that he can incorporate into all projects. Stuart contributes his in-depth understanding of passive design systems to the global passivhaus team.
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Chris Doel
Graham Day
Shane Esmore
Managing Principal, Vancouver
Associate, London
Director, Melbourne
Graham has over 15 years of continuous project experience and is conversant with all aspects of M&E engineering services.
Shane is a director in our Melbourne office, and principal of the specialist sustainability group. Shane is one of Australia’s leading sustainability consultants and is pioneering the integration of sustainability principles to the built environment in Australia and overseas.
Chris manages Integral Group’s Vancouver office. His areas of expertise includes detailed mechanical system design of high performance buildings, and neighbourhood energy master planning and system design. Chris draws on extensive industry experience within the Canadian construction market, and further afield in Europe, where sustainability is at the forefront of building design, in his work with the global passivhaus team. Chris truly understands the needs of his clients and puts high priority on nurturing valuable relationships with them.
Graham provides his expertise to the global passivhaus team by delivering projects ensuring passivhaus principles and requirements are carried through from design to give a high quality installation. He has used his experience on landmark projects such as the passivhaus plus Hackbridge Primary School, sharing knowledge and continually improving delivery of passivhaus buildings.
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Shane has developed deep knowledge and skill in the integration of innovative and passive design solutions that enhance indoor environment quality, reduce emissions and recurrent costs, and improve environmental outcomes.
The Elementa Way Mission: To be the top quality Deep Green engineering and consulting firm with global reach.
Trust The basis of every successful relationship, team and collaboration
Nurture We never stop learning or growing
Inspire We share our passion and expertise widely
Imagine We bring creativity and curiosity to solve complex problems
Perform Our work is target-driven, outcome-led, and evidence based
Accelerate Time is short - we need to urgently scale up
Sustain We grow and thrive so that we can have more impact
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