Implementation of the German Passivhaus Concept in the Southern Hemisphere

The first passive house (PH) was built in 1991, in Germany, by the Passive House Institute (PHI) of Darmstadt. In the next ten years several design solutions have been developed, which proved to be useful for the German climate. Later on, these solutions spread in Western and Central Europe and since 2007 in Southeastern Europe, including Romania. This paper focuses on the implementation of the German Passivhaus concept in Southern Hemisphere. Two groups of locations of similar latitudes have been considered. One group consists of cities placed on all Southern Hemisphere Continents, except Antarctica. The other group consists of European towns. The climate of the two groups of locations has been compared. A prototype passive building has been hypothetically placed in these geographical locations and its energy performance was estimated by using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP). The Passivhaus concept fits well for Tasmania, New Zealand and the Southern part of South America.