Certificate Passive-house-   suitable component

The best heat insulation – the window of the future

Windows that are certified for passive houses offer innovative solutions for heat insulation.

The passive house - the successor of the low-energy house - has been called the house of the future by building experts. A passive house can function without heating. Solar heat from the environment or the ground plus waste heat from household appliances and the heat from those living in the house are sufficient to provide the heat requirements of a passive house. Of course, the roof, walls and windows must be extremely well insulated. This was the reason why REHAU researchers developed the new, high-insulation window profile system REHAU Clima Design.

The Institute for Passive House Con-struction in Darmstadt certified windows in the REHAU Clima Design as "components suitable for pas-sive houses". The excellent insulation values make windows designed with this profile system suitable for old buildings, superior new buildings, low energy houses and, above all, passive houses. This saves valuable raw materials, heating costs and, at the same time, is easy on your purse and helps the environment. Additional, environmentally friendly perspectives are opened up by the complete recycling circuit during production and later disposal.

	Sectional view

This is how it works:
A normal brick wall in an old building has a k value of about 1 W/m²K. In contrast, a thirty-centimetre polystyrene-insulated special walls in a passive house achieve 0.15. The windows have, up until now, been the weak point. More than 35% of all heat loss in the house results from leaky, badly insulated windows. An old window has a k value of 0.6 k. However, a new double-glazed window achieves a value of 1.6 or better. The newly developed window profile system in the REHAU Clima Design, in contrast, achieves less than 0.8. In order to achieve this, the designer of the world-wide active, plastics company has to pull out all the stops. Material, construction, processing - everything has to be opti-mal, in order to fulfil the requirements of the Passive House Institute.

Sectional view

Five air chambers
A profile with five air chambers and a constructional depth of 120 mm, which is additionally filled with a specially developed, chlorofluorocarbon-free insulating wedges. These precisely cut wedges, with an extremely low heat conductance, are simply inserted into the profile. The space between the triple glazing is filled with the inert gases argon, krypton or xenon, which conduct even less heat than air. The spacers between the plates are no longer made of heat-conducting aluminium, but instead are made of a polymer. Three wide draught excluders, which run around the frame, assure additional pro-tection. The developers have also given due consideration to ensuring that a window made in the REGAU Clima Design looks like a normal window. The visual charm is equal to that of a surface-displaced window, and the wing is displaced and set in the window frame, so that the external appear-ance remains the same, regardless of whether the window is opened or closed.
In addition, windows in the REHAU Clima Design have all of the advantages of a conventional plastic window. It is easy to clean, reduces noise, prevents break-ins, requires little maintenance, durable and economic. As a result of saving heating costs, it is easy on the purses of those living in the house. There is also a positive side-effect: on disposal, all components can be effortlessly separated accord-ing to type of material. Specialised window dealers can process REHAU Clima Design products using their normal machinery. Since these windows have additional components, such as constructional depth, insulating wedges, three-pane glazing with a special filling, a window made in the REHAU Clima Design requires a little more work than a "normal" window, which is reflected in the higher, but acceptable price.

Clima Design is suitable for old buildings, superior new buildings, low-energy houses and passive house constructions.