Passivhaus Capital Cost Research Project
Publication date: January 2015
Reading time: 1-3 hours
Levels: Intermediate
Target audience: Clients, Policy makers, Contractors, Students, Architects, PH Designer/Consultant, Services engineers
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The Passivhaus standard is growing in popularity in the UK with more than 250 certified Passivhaus buildings designed and constructed to the standard at the end of 2014 and over 1000 buildings underway, both residential and non-domestic. Despite these impressive figures, it is still difficult to get a clear picture of the costs associated with Passivhaus building, particularly the extra over costs compared to standard building practices.
To obtain a clearer picture of Passivhaus costs in the UK, AECOM, in conjunction with the Passivhaus Trust, has undertaken a research study into the capital cost of building to certified Passivhaus standards across a number of affordable housing projects in the UK, using a standardised cost tool to compare projects on a like for like basis. Cost data from 11 UK certified Passivhaus projects ranging in size from two to twenty units of a similar size and nature, to allow benchmark comparisons to be made, were analysed.
In addition to answering the ‘what does it cost?’ question, we also investigated the extra over costs associated with building Passivhaus certified homes compared to other UK building standards, including Code for Sustainable Homes (CFSH) Level 4.
In collaboration with AECOM