Does Passive House Cost More? Where There is a Will....There is a Way
Laura Nettleton
Writer, Speaker, Architectural Collaborator, and optimist for making a healthy world
Does Passive House cost more? I get asked this question a lot and the answer is no….and maybe. It really depends on the priorities of the professionals who are designing the project. On smaller projects, like single family houses there is a premium, but larger projects don’t need to cost more. There are at least 100,000 or more different decisions to make on every project. Choices of what to include and what not to include, how simple or complex to make the project and many, many, more. Along with those decisions comes a hierarchy of decision making. What is most important and what is least….If you are really committed to reaching ultra-low energy use and ultra-high air-quality, and make it a priority, then Passive House will cost very little money. If, however, you design an entire project and then change out the windows and add extra insulation, monitoring, and proper detailing, then you can add as much as 10% to the cost of the project. Even with this approach, I may add, Passive House is worth doing these things because of the return on energy savings.
Objectors might proclaim “…we are sacrificing beauty for sustainability…” to which I reply, “Hogwash!” What I would say to those naysayers is that your designer should be able to design a beautiful project within the constraints of that project. The constraints are the budget, the physical constraints of site, structure, codes etc. and the owner’s priorities. Hopefully, the owner’s priorities include Passive House. If they do… Where there is a will... there is a way.
My point is illustrated beautifully in the graphs above that show the cost of affordable housing projects that were awarded by PHFA for projects competing for low-income housing tax credits. This was the first year that projects were awarded money for Passive House and it is safe to say that not many of the teams had prior experience with Passive House. Because the additional scoring points were awarded to teams seeking Passive House certification, it is safe to assume that those teams were committed to meeting Passive House. Passive House moved up on the hierarchy of the owner’s decision making because it was part of the criteria for getting the money for the project. If Passive House in fact costs more, then we would see all of the Passive House projects at the top of the graph. But we don’t…. we see the projects costs all over the graph. The teams who drank the Passive House Koolaid, managed to bring those projects in on budget using Passive House criteria. The tax-credit scoring gave developers an incentive, and because Passive House moved to the top of the list of priorities, it happened within the budget. It is all in the hierarchy of decision making. What are your priorities? Where there is a will... there is a way.
The first graph shows the number of projects that were awarded tax credits and the green dots on the second graph show the Passive House projects. As you can see the dots are ranging all over the spectrum of budget just as the non-Passive House projects are. Where there is a will... there is a way.
Passive House certification does cost more. And that is precisely why I believe that using Passive House criteria is essential but getting a certification is optional. I am weary of hearing that a project couldn’t be Passive House because the return on investment just wasn’t there…let’s be honest…it is really because the will wasn’t there.
When are we going to make energy use in buildings our priority? How about now?
Promoting Better Buildings for People & Planet | Exec Director BuildGreenCT | GreenStage Guilford Board Member | Pollinator Meadows & Native Plants SuperFan
5 年I whole-heartedly agree with your very thoughtful perspective on passive house. ?Thank you for sharing these very important results from PHFA. ?The robust performance of passive house to deliver buildings that are more resilient and emit far less GHG emissions while also delivering health and comfort is an unbeatable combination that more than justifies "the will". #passivehouse?#healthequity?#resiliency?
Writer, traveler, artist
5 年I'm building a residence. We studied (and I wrote about) Passiv principles, then picked what worked for us, no plans for cert. It is off grid solar, so the energy elements are most important, e.g., orientation, shading, ventilation, daylight. At the high effective cost per kWh off grid, the Passiv design elements will pay off.
Principal at Building Performance Architecture
5 年You write, "Passive House certification does cost more. And that is precisely why I believe that using Passive House criteria is essential but getting a certification is optional."? Could you clarify what parts of the certification process you believe are optional?? I am willing to step out and say that a third-party QA/QC process, which is part of PH certification, and is also used in other situations, is not optional for actually achieving (or even coming close to achieving) what the design criteria aspire to. What are your thoughts on that?
Serial environmental entrepreneur and policy expert.
6 年We have been looking hard at how the economic of Passive House are affected by MEETS. Our early conclusion is that using MEETS can make Passive House pencil at scale.