Nilan Ireland has announced that all Nilan heat pumps have achieved best-in-class performance under the EU’s new Ecodesign Directive, which came into force last September.

The Association for the Conservation of Energy (Ace) has described as “scandalous” the Chancellor’s announcement of a 42% cut in the help available to households living in “dangerously” cold homes.

Our editor Jeff Colley appeared on a segment on RTE 1's Eco Eye last night, extolling the virtues of passive house, alongside passive house owner Niall Walsh of KNX Tech. If you missed it, check out this video.

Linham Construction has just announced the introduction of Geocell foam glass gravel and aggregate in Ireland.

Ecohouse Developments, a new low energy design and build service, has launched in Ireland. The company employs a team of architects, engineers and builders, and can deliver turnkey passive houses to its clients, or simply build the principle passive structure if the client prefers.

The Royal Institute of British Architects said that, despite some growing pessimism among architectural practices about business prospects, passive house design represents a new and exciting growth area that offers added value for architectural firms.

Medite Smartply, the leading manufacturer of oriented strand board (OSB) provided a rapid, reliable solution for a humanitarian project coordinated by Greenpeace UK to build emergency accommodation for homeless families in time for Christmas.

Heat Merchants and HomeBond co-hosted the National Construction Industry Conference last November in Croke Park’s Conference Centre to review key issues and deliver insights to over 210 architects, engineers, planners and developers. The topics centred around key issues which will influence the future of the construction industry in Ireland, including liability, health & safety plus the implications of recent and upcoming additions to various sections of the building regulations.

Leading low energy builders Pat Doran Construction Ltd have advised anyone aiming to build a passive house using traditional cavity wall construction that correct detailing and installation is crucial.

Stephen Fry has been announced as the special guest at Ecobuild 2016, the UK’s largest show dedicated to construction and energy. The erudite writer, actor and campaigner joins a lineup of industry leaders and experts.

This year’s Light + Building show, the leading European trade show for lighting and building services engineering, takes place from 13 to 18 March at Messe Frankfurt, Germany. In addition to its exhibition of the latest and most innovative products, the show will feature an extensive complementary programme of other events.

Flynn Heat Recovery Systems has just completed the installation of 93 Zehnder passive-certified MVHR units in a housing scheme under development by SDR Group at Aikens village, Stepaside, Co Dublin.

The AECB, the Association for Environment Conscious Building, is hosting a number of passive house courses this spring – ranging from courses to become certified passive house designers to “bite size” training sessions for designers who wish to familiarise themselves with the standard.

Industry experts Mark Siddall and Nick Grant will deliver a masterclass that examines the potential causes of overheating, and how to design, build and operate a passive building in order to prevent overheating problems, on 15 February in the Saint-Gobain Innovation Centre in London. 

Passive house is now 25 years old, and to celebrate this, the International Passive House Conference is returning to Darmstadt – the German city in which this success story began.

Michael Bennett & Sons’ just-launched development, Madeira Oaks in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, features what may be the lowest-cost passive housing in Ireland.

Icynene Classic, the open-celled soft, flexible, breathable foam insulation, familiar to thousands of residential installers around the country, has just secured BBA certification for applications directly to the underside of breathable and non-breathable roof membranes and felt – without the need for either a vent card or a double batten system. 

KNX Association has marked the 25th anniversary of KNX, the worldwide standard for home and building control, with the largest ever one-day global event for the building automation sector.

The University of Nottingham has developed a “novel and easy-to-use test for measuring the airtightness of buildings” in order to help eliminate draughts, improve energy efficiency and reduce heating bills.

The digital versions of all previous issues of Passive House Plus are now freely available online.  The magazine is available in entirety in digital form, while many of the feature articles are also now available in HTML form - or in other words as regular web articles. The digital editions use the Issuu pageflipper software, which was chosen for its functionality, simplicity and the ability for readers to interact with magazine content - for instance by sharing links to articles in the magazine via social media or email, or by clicking links to websites contained in articles and adverts.