Featured Guidance: Costs

Technical Insight: Whole-life costs for EnerPHit

Dr. Sarah Price, Encraft November 2015

This Technical Insight report by PHT members Encraft looks at two scenarios where whole life costing can be useful, the retrofit of a low and high-rise block of flats. The high rise block has a solid business case for EnerPHit retrofit so this has been looked at specifically to see how whole life costing can help determine the type of heating system that could be installed in an all-electric building.

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Passivhaus Capital Cost Research Project

Jane Barnes, AECOM January 2015

To obtain a clearer picture of Passivhaus costs in the UK, AECOM, in conjunction with the Trust undertook 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.

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Technical Insight: Whole-life costs of a Passivhaus

Dr Sarah Price and Helen Brown, Encraft February 2014

Whole-life costing analysis accounts not only for capital costs, but also for the total operational and maintenance costs, which are summed over the lifetime of the building. Fuel price rises, tax and inflation can also be incorporated into the analysis when appropriate. This Encraft Technical Insight explores the impact of varying assumptions and uses this to generate results which are more robust.

The results of the study show that in the majority of scenarios (and even if it costs 10% more to build), a Passivhaus will have lower whole-life costs than a traditional new build. Choice of building services is critical, however, and selecting those with lower maintenance and replacement costs is highly recommended.

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Passivhaus Trust Cost Research Project: Cost Template

Passivhaus Trust August 2013

As part of PHT's research into the capital costs of Passivhaus, Jane Barnes, Senior Project Manager at Aecom, developed standard metrics, based on the Building Costs Information System (BCIS) template, to produce a cost template to use when reporting the costs of Passivhaus.

These metrics were used to compare costs of Passivhaus housing across a range of sites for both new build and retrofits. Comparisons were made by house type, size and tenure, to ensure that like-for-like costs are reported.

The template is intended to record costs for selected case studies, starting with terraced housing (already complete) and moving on to apartments and retrofit housing.

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