The Passive House Briefing in Dundalk Institute of Technology on 11 March 2015 was a great success with around 90 attendees at the event.

Colin Doran, Dept of Construction and Surveying, welcomed everyone to the college and introduced the various speakers.

Dr Shane Colclough (presentation in PDF), chair of the PHAI, presented an overview of Passive House in Ireland.

The remaining presentations covered a variety of topics, with Darren Sweeney of Dimplex Renewables outlining heat pumps and their application.

Niall Crosson (presentation in PDF) of Ecological Building Systems explained the importance of airtightness on site. He also outlined some very enlightening examples of how things can go wrong on site if the correct procedures are not followed or the correct materials are not used.

With the fast approaching Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) targets, Michael Hanratty (presentation in PDF) of IHER Energy Services, explained what these targets mean, and provided summary details on the NZEB Open Days and the EPISCOPE project (additional EPISCOPE presentation in PDF).

Bernadette McArdle (presentation in PDF), Building Control Officer, Louth County Council presented an overview of the important changes for owners/developers and Local Authorities since the introduction of the new Building Control Amendment Regulations 2014 last March.

The evening concluded with an interactive Q&A session.