The Whistler Passive Sports Centre

Introduction:

The 2010 winter Olympic and Paralympics games were staged in Vancouver, Canada. As part of the construction works a passive sports centre was constructed at the whistler site which is 125km north of Vancouver.  The “Austria Haus” which it has become known is a 250m² building which was the first passive house in Canada designed according to the PHPP verification. The sports centre was built in 2009 in partnership between Austria Passive House Group, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation and Sea to Sky Consulting. The house served as the Austrian Olympic Committee headquarters and daily broadcast studio for the Austrian Public Broadcaster during the games. On April 1^st 2010 after the conclusion of the games, the Austria Passive House Group handed this facility over to the Resort Municipality of Whistler – which now used house two popular sporting groups: the Whistler off Road Cycling Association (WORCA) and the Whistler Nordics.

Design

This project was designed by the architect Martin Treberspurg. The idea behind the architectural design was to provide a sample of alpine architecture: a traditional, compact building with a southern-orientation and a gable roof. The monolithic appearance was enhanced by the use of black fibre-cement boards on the entire facade and roof.  The ground floor consists of a restaurant area which has a south facing orientation to maximise solar heat gain. Upstairs is the location of the broadcast studio and a separate VIP area; however the internal layout of this building will change when the Austria Passive House Group hand it over to the resort municipality of Whistler.

Front elevation of Passive Sports Centre

Construction Personal

The Austrians provided all the building materials, including the feature logs, triple-glazed windows, walls, roof, ventilation and air circulation systems.

Companies included in construction included:
• Durfeld Log Construction(Whistler based): assembled the building
• Sohm Holzbautechnik: supplied the design and manufactured wood products
• BASF (German company): produced the dense, interlocking foam pieces called Isoquick, used for the heat trapping under the floor slab.
• Optiwin: supplied the triple-glazed windows
• Drexel-Weiss: supplied the HRV (heat recovery ventilators)

Construction Details :

The building envelope was prefabricated in Alberschwende, Austria by Sohm Holzbautechnik. Prefabrication took approximately 4 weeks. The building envelope was then shipped to Canada. The two story building was then erected by the Sohm team. After the erection of the building envelope this then allowed other companies to carry out the works required to complete the building.

Such elements that helped this centre achieve the passive house standard include:

• The floor which contains 250mm“isoquick” insulation helps the floor achieve a u-value of 0.12W/m²K.
• The 480mm timber frame wall which includes 320mm of mineral wool insulation between studs. The wall has an overall u-value of 0.121W/m²K.
• The roof contains two layers of “Isover” insulation with a total thickness of 440mm. The u-value for the roof is 0.106W/m²K.
• The glazing provided by optiwin has a u-value of 0.79W/m²K.

The building has an annual heating demand of 15kWh/m²a and a heating load of 17W/ (m²). The n50 value is 0.28/h which is well below the 0.6 needed at 50Pa in a passive house.

Along with providing high quantities of insulation, the building also uses a geothermal-fed heating system that allows the building to maintain a constant temperature of between 12-15º C. This allows the building to be heated for approximately $300 a year compared with $3000 for a typical construction method in the area.  

Video below gives an insight into the construction of the house.

Conclusion:

As we can see from this building, the passive house concept can be used on any project type provided the right design and construction techniques are used. More emphasis will surely need to be placed on buildings such as this throughout the world to get them to the passive standard.

 It is difficult to understand the reason why this is the first and only certified passive building to date in Canada given the cold winter climate which they experience. It seems there is going to be a shift to passive house in the future with companies such as Durfeld construction moving specifically into passive house construction. The company wants to promote the passive house as a building option by promoting it as being economically attractive. To show that it can be economically attractive they have designed a pilot projects in which they hope will demonstrate the increased efficiency will offset the initial investment. It appears that the passive house standard is going to become more widely applied across Canada in the coming years.

Construction of the pilot project in Whistler taking place



Study of Primary Energy Implication of Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery in Residential Buildings

Introduction:

This is a study that analyses the impact of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (VHR) on the operation of primary energy use for residential buildings. The operational primary energy use is calculated by comparing two buildings, one built to the conventional standard and the other to the passive standard, they will be compared with and without VHR and using different heat supply systems.

Results:

Results from the study show that the primary energy savings of VHR can be very significant, depending on air tightness, type of heat supply system. The Primary energy savings of VHR is significantly greater when using resistance heating, followed by heat pump and district heating with 50% CHP. However, much smaller or no primary energy savings are achieved when using district heating with 90% CHP.

The results obtained from this study also state that the total final energy use of the passive building with VHR is about 21% lower than for the alternative without VHR. This is also the case for the conventional building in that final energy is 10% less than that without the VHR. This means the VHR will reduce the final energy for space heating and ventilation by 55% in passive and 22% in conventional building.

Below is a video showing how a VHR system operates

Reveiw 

It is difficult to be too critical of the results obtained in this study given the authors have up to 25 years experience in the area. However it is unlikely that the results are totally accurate. The first area to evaluate is whether this is a truly passive building which is being compared; the u-values which are outlined for the ground floor of 0.23W/m²K and for the windows 0.85W/m²k are above the 0.15W/m²K for floors and 0.8W/m²K for windows which is certified by the passive house institute in Germany.

Secondly in Sweden they experience extremely cold winters which last from December to April approximately. During this time the VHR system will encounter frost and need defrosting which will increase electricity use and reduce the net primary energy savings. Calculations for this study do not include electricity to defrost the system which is remarkable given where the study is located.

One would also have to wonder about the reasoning behind this study. It is carried out in Sweden on a four-storey wood frame building with 16 apartments and has a heated floor area of 1190m².

These results obtained only have relevance for this particular construction in this particular area and cannot be quoted in any other country such as Ireland due to different construction methods and climate. In comparison to Sweden, Ireland experiences a more temperate maritime climate.

Conclusion

Overall this study states a large amount of information which is already known to most construction professionals in the area such as “primary energy savings are greater in more airtight passive buildings than conventional buildings” and the “primary energy savings of VHR depend on the electricity used to operate the VHR system” and would be of little use to these people.

To obtain a true primary energy saving, it would be important for the authors to look at a number of identical buildings in different areas and climates and then obtain values.

The Passive House: A method rather than a building style.

The passive house institute has developed several building techniques to suit the central European climate. The passive house concept and laws remain the same around the world, however different details may need to be found to suit the climate and geographic conditions. The first step is to use the passive house process which will determine solutions for each region and climate.Passive houses may appear quite different but the principle which is to reduce investment through energy efficient design remains the same. The overall heat demand for the house is reduced by means of insulation, heat recovery, passive solar gains etc. and this means the house will have very low energy demand for maintaining interior comfort in the heating season. The peak heating should be projected to lower level than 10W/m² which will require careful planning in colder climates. In other regions however other energy sevices such as cooling or dehumidification could be more important than heating. It is important in every design that comfort is at a high level for the occupant.

After assessing the goals of the passive house it a computer based parmetric study of the design to check the results for energy demand, financial investment and healthy indoor climate.