The winners of this year’s UK Passivhaus Trust awards have been announced. The awards recognise the best passive-certified building projects in the UK.

In this blog post, Paul Doran recalls the challenges and lessons of building a low energy home on a tight budget for his family. 

The number of certified passive house designers and consultants has passed the 4,000 mark globally, after the latest round of exams were held in more than 30 countries across Europe, North America and Asia. 

Oxfordshire company Green Unit has developed a new prefabricated, modular low rise building built to the passive house standard using natural and sustainable materials. 

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust has announced the finalists for its 2014 Passivhaus Awards, which are sponsored by Saint-Gobain.

Climate science and building science are set to intersect at a passive house conference in New York on 17 June.

Passive House Plus is delighted to announce that we are now an official partner magazine of the International Passive House Association.

In an ecological project that wil be groundbreaking in a literal and figurative sense, a highly unusual earth mound passive house has just gained planning permission in the Cotswolds.

Passive House Plus magazine continues to have the highest circulation of any construction magazine in Ireland, and to be the county’s only building magazine with independently audited circulation.

West Midlands-based independent consulting engineers Encraft have organised a passive house conference in Birmingham on 30 May 2014. The event, featuring some of the leading speakers and projects in this emerging area, is supported by Climate KIC, Passivhaus Trust and Passive House Plus magazine.

Airtightness expert Mark Shirley of Zephair reports from the International Passive House Conference in Aachen - with Irish low energy expertise attracting significant attention, and signs of a rapidly growing UK presence in passive house.

April 7 saw the opening of the five-day meeting in Germany, between government representatives and scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to finalise the third report in a four part series, assessing the options for mitigating climate change and the underlying technical, economic and institutional requirements. Last month saw the release of the second report from the IPCC, in Yokohama, Japan on 31 March.

The winners of the first ever Passive House Component Award, with a total of twelve passive house windows set to receive recognition at the International Passive House Conference later this month. The real winners, however, are the building owners, as the results of this international competition demonstrate that it's possible to save money with highly efficient building components. Manufacturers offered their products at retail prices including installation for an example building. For each of the four categories - PVC, wood, wood/aluminium, and aluminium - the overall investment and energy costs saved in comparison with standard windows were the decisive factor. The awards will be presented at the International Passive House Conference taking place from 25 to 26 April in Aachen, Germany.

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust will hold a conference on large scale passive house developments on 30 April in Glasgow.

Low energy design specialists Accredited Passivhaus Design (APD) are promoting the design of affordable housing to the passive house standard at Ecobuild from 4 to 6 March. According to APD, the passive house approach can reduce rent arrears while reducing the need for off-site allowable solutions as part of compliance with the UK's zero-carbon homes target in 2016. Part of the UK government's proposal for zero carbon homes, allowable solutions permits the counting of carbon credits as a carbon reduction strategy for buildings.

Passive house will be represented stronger than ever at this year’s Ecobuild on 4 to 6 March, with a series of events throughout the exhibition focused on the world’s leading ultra low energy building standard. Passive House Plus will also be at this year’s exhibition — come find us at stand S800.

That’s the question I want to ask today. I’m talking mostly about the situation in Ireland, because it’s the one I’m more familiar with things over here — particularly with regards to building regulations. But the same might apply to the UK.

.A range of newly certified passive house components were presented in January at the Deubaukom trade fair in Essen, Germany, including windows designed for use in the arctic and northern Scandanvia.  

Check out this video below of Passive House Institute founder Prof Wolfgang Feist speaking at last year's See The Light conference in Dublin, which was organised by the Passive House Association of Ireland.

The Passive House Institute has announced the launch of a 3D model interface that allows for the graphic input of energy related design data. 

The Passive House Institute has announced the launch of a new award for window systems. 

The Universiy of Leicester Centre for Medicine will become the UK's largest non domestic passive house building when it is completed in 2015. 

A new online passive house tutorial video series has just been launched by Energyquarter. The series is hosted by Tomás O’ Leary from the Passive House Academy, accredited Passive House Institute trainers.

The UK's largest passive house scheme, developed by the Broadland Housing Group and designed by Ingleton Wood architects, has been approved for a brownfield site in Norwich.

The International Passive House Days, during which passive buildings around the world open their doors to the public, took place this year from November 8-10. This year marked the 10th anniversary of the event. 

See The Light, Ireland's passive house conference, takes place next Friday October 25 in Dublin. Passive House pioneer Prof Wolfgang Feist will be the keynote speaker. 

Passive house pioneer Prof Dr Wolfgang Feist has welcomed the publication of the latest IPCC climate change report, and called for urgent action to reduce emissions.

Ed Miliband has said that the UK will build 200,000 homes per year if Labour gets into government, while promising to make the UK a “world-leading green economy." If such assertions are mutually exclusive, then they must be treated as hollow rhetoric, indistinguishable from David Cameron’s husky hugging stunt and unfulfilled pledge to lead the “greenest government ever.”

This is Villa Lagenkamp, the first certified passive house ever built in Denmark, finished in 2008. 

Construction has begun on what is expected to be Ireland's first certified passive house pharmacy. The project in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, was designed by Paul McNally Architecture.