Passive houses and low energy houses have no traditional heating system. They are built with a very air-tight and well insulated structural construction in order to minimize the heat losses. These losses can be compensated for through the habitants’ body heat and the use of household appliances. The remaining potential heat loss is through the ventilation. That is why the REC Temovex air handling unit with a high efficient heat exchanger has a key-role in energy efficient constructions. The unit is leading fresh air in from the outside through the heat exchanger in which a system of aluminium plates keeps it separated from a warm air-stream of used air coming from the inside of the house. When these air streams pass each other, still separated by an aluminium plate, the heat is transferred to the fresh outside air let in to the house. With this kind of heating the emissions of air pollutants, i.e. carbon dioxide is drastically reduced. It’s interesting to compare the carbon dioxide emissions from all Swedish houses/flats using traditional versus energy efficient constructions.

The bar chart below is based on the amount of houses/flats built in Sweden during 2008:

Statistics Sweden, SCB
The Swedish National Board of Housing, BBR byggregler
Passive House Centre
Green Building Concept

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