ᐅ Passive House as a Logical Choice? Are There Any Counterarguments?

Vogtländer schrieb:
Do you ever have the feeling that you understood something and wonder why everyone else doesn’t do it that way?
That’s exactly how we feel about the passive house right now. Did we miss something, or are there any arguments against a passive house? I really can’t think of any.

Sure, it’s a bit more expensive upfront, but when I recover the costs soon and save for a lifetime, I don’t understand why, for example, anyone would build a KFW 70 house.

Vogtländer schrieb:
In our case, that means I have additional investments of about 30% (€60,000), but my monthly expenses are actually a bit lower thanks to the lower interest rate and savings on running costs.

Vogtländer schrieb:
So please convince me otherwise or agree with me, but I’ve got to say, my conviction for the passive house feels a bit uncanny.

Well, I’m not trying to convince anyone differently or disprove you, but one counterargument might be:

If I take the extra €60,000 investment and spread it over 30 years (just a rough assumption since we don’t know how prices will evolve), that would mean about €1,000 per year for gas. Over 30 years, that’s €30,000.
I don’t have to finance the €60,000, so I don’t pay interest on that amount. I think electricity costs will roughly balance out… but I’m quite skeptical about that because in winter you usually have to buy quite a bit more electricity.
On top of the €60,000, there might be additional soundproofing for the technical room (I once heard that the system could generate more noise), which I wouldn’t have to finance now either…
So go ahead and show me where I’m wrong, but somehow, based on my gut feeling (I’m too lazy for big calculations right now), I come to a better result if a) I don’t have to finance this €60,000, or b) I invest part of it in a bit more floor area (which is a downside, but at least I can heat those extra square meters with gas as well).

With a 2% interest rate, the monthly payment would be €222 (about $240) higher over 30 years of repayment.
At 1% interest, it would still be around €194 (about $210) more. (But who actually gets 1% interest guaranteed for 30 years on €60,000 (about $65,000).)
I don’t even pay that much combined for general electricity and the electricity for our heat pump. (KfW 70 standard.) So, you would really have to sell a lot of electricity for it to ever be cost-effective.

By the way, what do you do with all the chimney heat in a passive house? Open the windows and let it out?

Hello,

Is the offer from the Czech provider you asked about some time ago?

Vogtländer schrieb:

So we are getting the Energy Plus house for €210,000 (1750 €/m² (162.58 USD/ft²)) fixed price (Energy Saving Ordinance reference house offer would be €160,000, so about 30% less)… The photovoltaic system plus battery costs €23,000… so a €27,000 surcharge from the Energy Saving Ordinance level to Passive House

A solidly built prefab house for €1,333.00/m² (123.88 USD/ft²), a Passive House at €1,525.00/m² (141.76 USD/ft²), and an Energy Plus house at €1,750.00/m² (162.58 USD/ft²) – where is the catch?

Regards, Bauexperte

Vogtländer schrieb:
@nathi
When the sun is shining, I heat my buffer tank and charge the battery.
When the sun isn’t shining, I use the hot water from the buffer tank. Once that is depleted, I switch over to an instantaneous water heater. I only use electricity from the battery first; once it’s empty, I purchase additional power. At the end of the year, there is a final settlement balancing the power bought and fed into the grid.

I’ve mentioned this before elsewhere.
We have a 5.5 kWp system on the roof – almost perfectly south-facing.
In December last year, due to very few sunny days, we fed a modest 30 kWh into the grid. There were also several consecutive days without sun. Our self-consumption rate that month was good (35% – when production is low, a larger portion tends to be used directly onsite). How far would you get if you stored those 30 kWh in a battery?
This is not an isolated case, as you can see from January – we fed a lean 90 kWh into the grid, with self-consumption at 30%.
November 2014 saw about 120 kWh fed into the grid (self-consumption was not measured then).

This month, I am almost happy already. Over the last few days, we have fed more than 150 kWh into the grid. Here, I would agree with you – with these 150 kWh stored in a battery plus the self-consumption already achieved (not yet measured), one should almost manage to live fairly self-sufficiently with an energy-saving lifestyle.

PS: As you can gather from these lines, we have no battery storage. We also do not use other energy efficiency measures such as smart technology. The washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher are programmable.

Bauexperte schrieb:
EnergyPlus house at a cost of €1,750.00 – where’s the catch?

Quite simply: in the (modern) quality of the furnishings and installations.
Because even low-budget builders can construct Passive Houses.
If it is truly a Ready-to-Develop (RD) house, just a look at the construction specifications is enough to see where the savings are made.
That is why apples and oranges are unknowingly being compared here. But okay: to each their own. Some prefer showcase technology, others a wellness bathroom. However, I do not want to change the topic of the discussion here.

It seems to me that Vogtländer visited a “good” seller.
I only hope that the requirements for this project are correct as well (orientation, vegetation, neighboring buildings... I did some surfing around), so that the outcome will be plentiful.

I am, however, surprised that one can simply use a standard house as a basis for such a Passive House or Multi-Energy House. I thought more parameters were involved, such as window size and positioning—in other words, an individually designed house on sufficiently large land.

Or do I not need to apply the prerequisites for a Passive House to a Multi-Energy House?

The price per square meter we received for a penthouse was just under €2,040 (approximately $2,220). Additional costs are not excluded.
I cannot imagine that €1,500 (about $1,630) would be sufficient unless the provider cuts corners on materials or skilled labor.
Our house, built according to the Energy Saving Ordinance, is just slightly below that.