8% more: that’s the extra cost in the UK for building to the Passive House standard, according to this report. That is quite good.
The most important factors in containing costs are:
- simple form;
- modest glazing; and
- an experienced team—in particular, experienced clients.
Is it noteworthy that the majority of the projects in this study were social housing, not bespoke mansions for private owners?
Every time I talk to an experienced builder targeting Passive House work, they talk about learning from each build to simplify the project, remove or reduce risk and build quality checks into the construction process.
“New research published by the Passivhaus Trust has shown that the real-term cost of building to the Passive House standard has fallen since the previous study four years ago.
A “best-practice” Passive House social residential project might now be achieved at a cost uplift of 8% over a non-passive equivalent—and some projects are already achieving lower costs even than this.
The Trust’s latest research examined cost data from just over a dozen Passive House residential developments, ranging in size from less than five to over 70 units. Most were constructed for social landlords, with a minority for private sale.”
—16 Jan 2020