Ireland’s new build housing market is undergoing a radical transformation in energy performance specifications, analysis by Passive House Plus has revealed — with oil heating all but vanishing from use, leaving gas boilers and heat pumps to dominate the heating market.

As construction activity picks up and demand for heat pumps continues to grow, leading renewable heating product supplier Energy Superstore has emphasised the importance of choosing a supplier with extensive experience of heat pumps.

The Irish and UK editions of Passive House Plus have both recorded circulation increases of 5%, independent circulation audits have revealed – delivering added value for the innovative companies who advertise in the magazine 

Green Building TV, a new community platform that uses video to communicate ideas, products and services between buyers and sellers — all relating to the sustainable construction sector — is set to go live in mid June. 

Passive house & sustainable building mortgage provider Ecology Building Society has become the first building society in the UK to be awarded the Fair Tax Mark. 

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.

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

Four industry leaders will launch their drive for better retrofit standards across the UK at Ecobuild next week with a pledge to assure the post-retrofit performance of traditional solid wall buildings.

The new version of the passive house planning software is now available.

The winners of the 2013 UK Passivhaus Awards were announced last Thursday at a ceremony at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador in London.

My blog post last week on 'passive house vs passivhaus' generated a fair bit of debate, so I thought it'd be nice to take a look at some of the reaction it provoked. The vast majority of those who responded disagreed with my stance, and this magazine's stance, expressing preference for the German 'passivhaus'.

Roof window manufacturer Fakro has announced the award of a Passive House Institute certificate for its quadruple-glazed FTT U8 Thermo roof window, which has a U-value of 0.58.

With the deadline fast approaching, the bulk of the editorial content for our inaugural UK edition has been confirmed. Curiosity getting the better of you? The following issue overview may make the anticipation unbearable…

Professor Wolfgang Feist has been awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects. The award ceremony took place on 6 February.

Welcome to the website of Passive House Plus, an award winning magazine about building and upgrading to the highest standards of energy efficiency, health, comfort and sustainability. At the time of writing the site has been published as a beta version, and can be viewed on PCs, laptops or tablets, with formatting for smart phones set to follow imminently. 

We’re delighted to announce that Passive House Plus has won the business magazine of the year award at the 2012 Irish Magazine Awards.

The judges of the awards – which were announced at a swanky event at Dublin’s Clyde Court Hotel in December – cited the magazine’s "high editorial and design standards” and “commitment to audience engagement”.

The Passive House Association of Ireland has called on the government to adopt the passive house standard as the national minimum building standard for Ireland, and to support "a series of passive house exemplary buildings across the country".

Galway-based passive house specialists Scandinavian Homes has just completed their 51st Irish project to the passive house standard, at Spiddal, Co Galway. The company's Lars Pettersson told Passive House Plus magazine that there's never been a more cost-effective time to build a passive house.