Building to the Passive House standard not only ensures that your house is comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient, but also benefits you economically in the long-term, through drastically reduced energy bills.
How is this done? Through strategies that take advantage of free heat (passive solar of course, but also the waste heat of appliances, lighting, and even our bodies), and keep that heat in the building through added insulation, triple-glazed windows, airtight construction, and elimination of thermal bridges. This means the house doesn’t need an extensive heating system, but a relatively small one. (It’s sometime mistakenly claimed that a Passive House doesn’t need a heating system – it does. But that heat source won’t be a conventional furnace – it can be as small as a hair dryer!). A balanced ventilation system with heat recovery then ensures superior air quality and comfort, provides fresh air from the outside, and at the same time recovers most of the heat in the exhaust air before it leaves the building. Passive Houses will only use 25% or less of the energy of conventional new houses.
While it’s true a Passive House will cost more than a conventional built-to-code new house (around 5-10%), some of the extra investment in thicker walls, better windows etc. is offset by not needing a large, complicated heating system. In the first few years, the additional mortgage payments will be offset by reduced utility bills, and when the investment is paid off the energy savings continue for the life of the house. It’s really a win-win scenario – you get a healthier, more comfortable, longer lasting house, that’s easy on the environment, and in the end it even saves you money!
