PHPP 9 & designPH — a digital toolbox for passive house design
The latest versions of PHPP and designPH are intended to make passive house design both easier and more accurate than ever before — and to plan for a future powered by renewable energy. Jan Steiger of the Passive House Institute explains the latest features of both software packages. Over many years, the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) has proved extremely successful for planning new passive house buildings as well as retrofits according to the Enerphit standard. With PHPP version 9.1, released in 2015 with many new features and additions, building designers and energy consultants have an efficient digital tool at their disposal with which they can optimise their designs. In the early design phase, it is recommended that the planning tool designPH is used. This functions as a 3D data input interface for PHPP, and is available as a plugin for the design software SketchUp. For passive house buildings designed with PHPP and designPH, planned energy demand matches exceptionally well with actual consumption, both in the case of passive house new builds and in existing buildings which have been retrofitted to the Enerphit standard. The comfort level in these buildings also meets or exceeds expectations and in most cases these construction projects can be implemented cost-effectively. Major differences between the planned energy efficiency target and actual energy consumption, known as the performance gap, do not arise with passive house and Enerphit buildings — this has been proven over the years in numerous monitored projects. New features and additions in the PHPP 9.1 PHPP is just as well-known as the passive
house standard itself. It forms an important basis for the successful implementation of passive house concepts and technologies, and is an excellent tool to plan for regulatory building programs. This year, the tried-andtested software was revised and re-released as version 9.1. A short summary of the most important functions is presented below. International Enerphit criteria Building refurbishments all over the world can now be certified in accordance with the internationally applicable Enerphit criteria. In addition to the requirements for heating or cooling demand, component criteria which have been sub-divided into seven international climate zones are also now available. In this way, planners can specify the corresponding minimum standard for the relevant building components in a refurbishment project depending on the climate data of the location. In addition, the requirements for the cooling demand are determined depending on the usage-related internal loads or the climaterelated cooling and dehumidification demand. Managing step-by-step refurbishment with PHPP Now it is possible to enter different efficiency parameters within a single PHPP file, whereas several PHPP calculations were required previously. The results of the variants are sorted
into columns and calculated in parallel so that one can easily compare the effects of these parameters. Other profitability comparisons can be made in a separate worksheet. In this way, different refurbishment steps can also be entered in a single PHPP file, and their influence on the efficiency level can be depicted. Retrofit projects which are scheduled to be completed over a long period of time can thus be documented and evaluated in a convenient way. The implementation of the variant functions of the PHPP was completed as part of the EU-funded project EuroPHit (www.europhit.eu) and tested using pilot projects. Error messages and input options A systematic review of the message function for missing data input or input errors was completed so that instructions or warning messages are now shown in a consistent manner in each calculation sheet, and then summarised in a newly created worksheet for this purpose. In this way, the user can quickly identify the places where data is either incorrect or incomplete and needs to be checked or reviewed. PHPP 9 also includes many more input options for calculating the distribution losses of hot water pipes. The program takes into account significantly more piping systems, including