How should the rooms be laid out in a passive house in Central Europe?

With an intelligent room layout energy can be saved.

The following aspects may play a part here:

Orientation: day rooms should be placed on the south side as far as possible, so as to use the sun's warmth (direct passive solar gains).
Zoning: large differences in temperature are not possible in passive houses – the temperature inside the thermal envelope is very uniform. However, if residual heat is deliberately directed into (say) the living room in the early evening, the temperature there will rise for a few hours; during the night the temperature will even out throughout the whole building. In this way the temperature in separate bedrooms can be kept between 18 and 19 °C even in passive houses, while the day rooms are at 20 to 21 °C.
Lighting: orienting the rooms in the required direction facilitates using daylight during the day. Here it is important that the windows provide the best possible angle of incidence, i.e. the windows should preferably reach up to the ceiling.
Lighting of interior rooms: glazed partitions or windows on interior rooms that do not need much light, such as side rooms or hallways, provide daylight in areas which could otherwise only be lit artificially.
Ventilation: if rooms air is supplied to, overflow areas and rooms air is exhausted from are distributed sensibly, the ventilation system can be scaled so as to minimize air flowrates in operation.

EXAMPLE BOX

Example 1

Glazed partitions in the north-south axis of a building let daylight well into the interior. The photograph shows the upper floor of the S-HOUSE in Böheimkirchen, where this principle was applied.

Interior glazing (source: GrAT)

Example 2

The relevant day rooms all face south. The ground floor comprises the living or shared rooms including the kitchen, and an additional multi-purpose room. The building services are located on the north side of the building in the smallest possible space.

Floor plan of ground floor (source: Benjamin Wimmer)