Living or working in a passive house is a challenging novelty. EEMTE partner city of Leipzig set the passive house as a standard for newly erected and – if economic efficiency is given – for refurnished buildings. Since the use of passive house requires specific knowledge, staff working in these buildings has to be trained to optimize their benefits.

First workshop for facility managers in Saxony

On 18 November the first workshop was held in the Wilhelm-Ostwald School, the first communal passive house in Leipzig, meeting passive house standard by energy efficient refurbishment. About 40 facility managers attended the workshop.

The workshop was divided into two parts. In the theoretical part participants got general information on climate warming and energy issues, European and national energy targets, the energy policies of the city of Leipzig, about their own role in reaching energy saving targets and on theoretical principles of a passive house. After, a practical measurement of air tightness was exemplary demonstrated by the so called blower door test, a test to precisely locate air leakages. Therefor, under pressure was generated in the entrance area of the school. Subsequently, air leakages could be detected with a measurement instrument or even felt by hand and action could be taken now to eliminate these leakages.

Leipzig participates in the European Energy Award and obliged itself to train facility manager on energy issues. Within the EnercitEE sub-project EEMTE methods to train facility managers on taking care of a passive house are developed and tested. Workshops are evaluated and results will be published at the end of the project.