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 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 five critical pillars:
- Airtightness
- Mechanical heat recovery/ventilation
- Insulation
- Glazing
- Thermal Bridge
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 $50,000 or more. The key is to follow at least three of the five 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 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 building materials.
So, focusing on these three 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 seven figure sum on the home of your dreams, there’s a case for getting exactly what you’ve always wanted), there’s nothing like a formally certified passive house.
Free Expert Advice To Help You Get A Supremely Comfortable, Energy-Efficient Home (Whether Its Formally Certified Passive Or Not)
Whether you’re looking to achieve certified passive house standards, or you 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.
