Retrofit. Have an Impact!
… is the banner of the Passive House Conference 2024 which takes place from 4 to 6 April in Innsbruck. B. Steinmüller is a member of the Scientific Conference Advisory Board. The preliminary program with a large number of interesting presentations has just been published. These include two current presentations by Bernd Steinmüller on topics such as energy-efficient refurbishment and the use of mini-split heat pumps. More soon!
Energy efficiency is still important – especially in old existing buildings – and was therefore the main topic of the 26th international Passive House Conference 2023, which took place March 2023 in Wiesbaden. Already in 2022 – under the seal of a 70 year old residential building exemplarily renovated by BSMC (Passive House Plus, see campaign picture attached), the Passive House Institute PHI launched the international campaign “Efficiency Now!” (Passipedia, International Press Release Efficiency Now). Information on the award-winning Plus House can be found in the international Passive House Project Database, at Passive House Award 2021 and below.
Passive House Award for BSMC
Prize: B. Steinmüller was awarded the PASSIVE HOUSE AWARD and the NRW Special Prize in 2021 for the Passive House Plus renovation of the above residential building (see prize photo, east side of garden). In the laudation it says: “Through the gentle handling of the building fabric, he has managed in a special way to preserve the character of the building and its surroundings. In addition, he has shown that the passive house standard can be implemented with reduced technology, sustainably and economically.” Thanks are also due to the architectural firm Wispler from Paderborn, which made the renovation a success with commitment and expertise. See also Poster-Hamm, Press Release, finalists, Interview with CSM-Alumnus Bernd Steinmüller in German , as well as following article “Fit for the future”.
In 2012, B. Steinmüller was awarded the international PASSIVE HOUSE PIONEER AWARD (Youtube, Recording International Passive House Conference 2012, German) … for pioneering work in the 1970s (see also Passipedia-Historical-Review).
Bernd Steinmüller Explains Sustainable Building Energy Concepts
In the special issue “Building Concepts” of the magazine Gebäudeenergieberater 07-2021 (German), Passive House pioneer Dr. Bernd Steinmüller explains under the title “Fit for the Future – Sustainable Energy Turnaround in Existing Buildings” how Passive Houses-Plus differ from mere “Plus-Energy-Buildings”.
He uses the built example to illustrate how the Passive House Plus concept can be implemented in an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable way even in existing buildings, how building owners, tenants, climate benefit, how renewable energies are efficiently used and how building resilience is increased (see also Interview with CSM alumnus Bernd Steinmüller in German).
More than 5 years of measurement data show that the concept works not only in theory, but also in renovation practice with high accuracy and is a key to sustainable buildings and independence from fossil energy. (Cf. also measurement data in English Poster-Hamm)
International Passive House Conference 2021
In September 2021, the 25th International Passive House Conference “Key to Sustainable Building” took place with numerous expert lectures, trade exhibition, competition for energy-efficient buildings, excursions and workshops – largely “virtual” due to COVID.
BSMC was one of the active supporters with Bernd Steinmüller on the conference advisory board and two lectures as well as two competition entries (Poster Awarded Passive-House-Plus Hamm, Passive-House-Plus-Poster-Aachen). The lecture Modernisation to Passive House Plus/Premium Standard (15 min, in German with English Subtitles) demonstrates by means of a current example how the energy demand can be massively reduced even in existing buildings, how the use of renewables can be massively increased, and that Passive House standards show the way forward here, while previous legal norms and subsidy standards are misleading and therefore need to be greatly improved. The lecture on dark droughts (13 min, in German with English subtitles) underlines that passive house technology is indispensable for sustainably tackling the supply problem and that it offers a “double dividend” in winter, which is more important today than ever before.