Passivhaus (Passive House) is often thought of as being “too expensive” for the mainstream. There are some designers and developers however who are managing to shave the capital cost premium down to just a few per cent – or even zero.
In researching this article for Passive House Plus I learned that the extra costs, where they are incurred, seem to derive from two main sources:
- Passivhaus components tend to be more expensive than the “conventional” alternatives – though this difference is diminishing all the time; and
- There is a “learning curve” in first (and probably second and third) Passivhauses for any team, where designers and contractors alike need to spend a bit longer working out how to co-ordinate their activities to ensure that details are buildable, and that built quality matches up to the standards sought.
The extra costs are mainly up-front; looked at over the building’s first decades of lifetime, running cost savings – including maintenance, and even cost associated with tenant dissatisfaction – start to pay back the initial investment. Continue reading “The cost of building passive”