Ecological Building Systems will host an event in London on Thursday 11 May, titled Insulating & Achieving Airtightness with Cross Laminated Timber.

The inaugural nZEBRA conference was held in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford on 2 March, and aimed to draw attention among policy makers, building designers and construction professionals to the rapidly approaching introduction of nearly zero energy building (nZEB) standards in Ireland.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is inviting businesses to come to the Energy Show 2017, the premier business energy event taking place at the RDS, Dublin on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 April.

Green Building Store is running a training day on 14 February for building professionals, which will offer a practical and technical guide to the cavity wall passive house construction techniques the company has used on its UK projects.

2016’s UK Passivhaus Conference, which took place in London in October, was the biggest yet, with 300 delegates and another 100 visitors to the expo that ran in parallel. Also in attendance were students from half a dozen architecture schools, some of whom had risen before dawn for the chance to attend.

Leading timber frame manufacturer Cygnum picked up five awards during one week in October, in recognition of some of the high profile passive-certified projects it has completed in recent years.

ISH, the world’s “leading trade fair for the bathroom experience, building services, energy, air-conditioning technology and renewable energies” takes place from 14 to 18 March 2017 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

The Passive House Association of Ireland (PHAI) has announced that it has welcomed four new patron members to the group: the Passive House Academy, Cygnum Timber Frame, Medite SmartPly and J & N Windows Ltd.

The AECB (Association for Environment Conscious Building) has invested over five years of extensive research to put together a unique online advanced retrofit training course, which brings together a wealth of knowledge on low energy retrofit and methodology.

Although full passive house training is regarded as the best way to gain an in-depth understanding of all aspects of passive house design, some construction professionals may not have the time or resources to be able to attend the typical two week passive house course. 

Ecological Building Systems has updated its Irish training programme for the autumn and winter season. Along with its award winning airtightness installer training, the company will launch a new course titled Low Energy Retrofits. To coincide with this Ecological will be also hold a Retrofit Insulation Masterclass on the 25 and 27 October.  

Passive House + has been widely praised for its editorial content, technical information and the relevance of its advertising in a survey of AECB members.

Kingspan Insulation has become the first insulation manufacturer to become a patron member of the Passive House Association of Ireland. The association, which is chaired by Dr Shane Colclough, aims to promote the passive house standard and fabricfirst building principles across the Irish construction industry as a whole.  

The big winners at this year’s UK Passivhaus Awards were Tigh na Croit by HLM Architects, which won in the Rural category, and Lansdowne Drive by Tectonics Architects, winner in the Urban Category. 

As part of the Passive House Association of Ireland southern region programme of CPD in passive house building knowledge, members have kindly agreed to open their passive building projects for site visits as a learning resource for builders, architects, students, systems installers and potential clients.

Cork-based manufacturer Poly Passive Mouldings Ltd has been recently been awarded a passive house certificate for its Passive Sills range of thermal bridge free window sills 

This year’s NZEB Open Doors event takes place from 11-13 November across Ireland. The event sees dozens of cutting edge, low energy buildings open their doors for members of the public to visit and experience for themselves. 

Leading low energy and passive house builder Pat Doran Construction Ltd recently picked up two leading construction industry awards for its Enerphit-standard upgrade to an early 20th century house in Rathgar, Co Dublin.

Passive house indeed works everywhere was the core message at the second annual South Pacific Passive House Conference, writes Andrew Michler. The conference was held in Melbourne on 12-13 February. While just a handful of passive houses have been completed in Australia so far, a sizable contingent from New Zealand came to the conference armed with multiple examples of how even warm climate buildings benefit from the energy savings, comfort and critically the health of a passive house. With a major spike in asthma from damp and mouldy homes, the principles such as airtightness, controlled air exchange, and thermal bridge free design are finally being accepted as the best solution in this part of the world.