You can get 80-90% of Passive House benefits for a fraction of the cost by focusing on insulation, glazing, and thermal bridges instead of pursuing full certification. Skip the $50,000+ premium and accept slightly lower airtightness and manual window ventilation.
The case against building a Passive House. There is nothing like owning a fully certified Passive House. It's the ultimate in comfort and energy efficiency. But just because you can build a Passive House doesn't mean you must or even should. Most Passive House builders won't tell you this, but the truth is you can enjoy 80 to 90% of the benefits of a Passive House without the full cost of Passive House certification. How to get Passive House comforts without the high cost. Passive Houses are designed and constructed around 5 critical pillars: airtightness, mechanical heat recovery ventilation, insulation, glazing, thermal bridge-free construction. For your home to be certified as a Passive House, it must meet rigorous standards in all of these areas. But that doesn't mean you can't build a supremely comfortable and energy-efficient home that falls just short of being certified as a Passive House. In fact, you can enjoy most of the benefits and save $50 grand or more. The key is to follow at least 3 of the 5 pillars. The most important Passive House pillars for a comfortable, energy-efficient home. If you'd like most of the comforts of a Passive House without the price of formal certification, simply forego some airtightness and mechanical heat recovery ventilation. While these features give you ultimate flexibility and control over the comfort of your home, you can achieve almost the same benefits as long as you're prepared to ventilate your home manually, i.e., open the windows once a day. In areas of variable weather like the Adelaide Hills, window glazing is almost an expected feature and cost, so it's not really adding to your budget. Insulation is also a familiar inclusion, which you can save money on with a slightly thinner material without significant loss of performance. And eliminating thermal bridges has more to do with the skill of the builder than the cost of the building materials. So focusing on these 3 pillars will give you most of the benefits of a Passive House without some of the cost. Naturally, if you want the ultimate, and when you're investing a 7-figure sum on the home of your dreams, there's a case for getting exactly What you've always wanted. There's nothing like formally certified Passive House. Whether you're looking to achieve certified Passive House standards or simply want a house that is healthy, comfortable, and energy efficient, we'd be glad to show you exactly how to do it the right way via our special report, The 5 Key Skills of an Energy Efficient Builder.
