The new Scandinavian Homes Ltd. Passive house in Galway was built in 2005 and was designed to meet and surpass the 'Passive standards' according to the German Passivhaus Institute. Therefore we also refer to it as a 'super' passive house.

It is located in Tooreeny, at the corner of the N59 and the Barna Road. It is available for viewing on Wednesday afternoon from 15.00 - 18.00 and occasionally on Saturdays. We announce these Saturday viewings on the first page on the left hand side, when they are available.

Main house. The main house has total floor area of about 250m2 divided over two levels. It consists of 6 bedrooms, two bathrooms, one with sauna, a utility room, large cloakroom and of course a large open-flow living/dining/kitchen area. The landing upstairs with its 3 large roof windows creates

a spacious feel when coming upstairs but we consider it also a weak point for energy performance.

Garage. An Atlantica 55 was added at a later stage to provide extra space for storage. The roof pitch is at 45 degrees to allow further space upstairs for storage. As the garage is only built to low-energy levels and is uninhabited the difference in temperature compared to the passive house can be felt instantly. For this reason and for display purposes we have installed an air to air heat pump, which we also sell. Find out more about the heatpumps here...

We are currently experimenting to use a solar seasonal storage tank connected to the solar panels and the underfloor heating pipes to heat this house without any usage of electricity or additional cost. Find out more here...