Jackson DigneyDirector, Enduro Builders · Passive House Builder | Director, Enduro Builders

Can You Have Skylights in a Passivhaus? | Enduro Builders

5 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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In this segment, the presenter dispels the common belief that skylights are incompatible with certified Passive House standards. He confirms that skylights can be used, but they are more expensive than conventional ones because they cause significant heat loss during nighttime and substantial solar gain during the day. The speaker notes a shortage of high‑performance skylight manufacturers in Australia, which forces the project to import a German‑made product that meets the stringent Passive House performance criteria, despite his preference for supporting local suppliers.

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Most people will suggest that you can't have a skylight in a certified Passive House. The reality is you can. They do cost a bit more, and one of the reasons that they cost so much more than a regular skylight is that skylights lose a lot of heat at night. They also gain a lot of heat during the day because they're basically facing the sun. Australia is one of the rare cases where We have to import a product from Europe. My preference is to always support local manufacturers and local suppliers. There's just a gap in the market in Australia for high-performance skylights, so on this project we've imported one from Germany that has the right performance characteristics to meet the certified Passive House criteria.