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What are the actual benefits of a 'passive house'?

Lisa Miles
On my lunchtime walk around town I pass by a construction site on a local residential street where an old house has been demolished and a couple of ‘passive houses’ are being built on the patch of land. 


I don’t know an awful lot about passive houses but I’m wondering if they are really worth the £699,995 price tag that’s being asked for them? 


They’re basically a three bedroom bungalow with two bedrooms in the roof space (dormers and skylight as windows) and one bedroom downstairs with an open plan kitchen/diner/lounge. A standard three bedroom house in the town goes for anywhere around £300 to £400k.


Can you really justify the extra £300k+ price tag for a passive house’? 

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    They're small compared with other standard 3 bedroom houses in the area Mike.


    In fact they've been a bit cheeky as the original plans show them as being three bedrooms with all three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and downstairs a large kitchen diner and a large living room. However, they've now split what was the living room into two to make a downstairs bedroom and a 'study/bedroom' and squeezed space for a sofa and TV into the kitchen/diner area. The whole of the Kitchen/diner/living room area is now only 12 ft x 27ft. Upstairs they've removed one of the bedrooms to make two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs but because of the configuration of the sloping roof space you only get a small portion of both rooms upstairs where you can actually stand up (probably why they decided to ditch the third bedroom at the back as you wouldn't have been able to stand up in it... ?)


    I'm not convinced that spending an extra £300k+ for a passive house just to save me a few hundred pounds a year on heating bills is really worth it? I'd have to live in the house for probably 400 years before I saw any financial benefit! 


    I think I'll stay in my cute little two bed cottage.... it's probably bigger.... and much cheaper... ?


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    They're small compared with other standard 3 bedroom houses in the area Mike.


    In fact they've been a bit cheeky as the original plans show them as being three bedrooms with all three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and downstairs a large kitchen diner and a large living room. However, they've now split what was the living room into two to make a downstairs bedroom and a 'study/bedroom' and squeezed space for a sofa and TV into the kitchen/diner area. The whole of the Kitchen/diner/living room area is now only 12 ft x 27ft. Upstairs they've removed one of the bedrooms to make two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs but because of the configuration of the sloping roof space you only get a small portion of both rooms upstairs where you can actually stand up (probably why they decided to ditch the third bedroom at the back as you wouldn't have been able to stand up in it... ?)


    I'm not convinced that spending an extra £300k+ for a passive house just to save me a few hundred pounds a year on heating bills is really worth it? I'd have to live in the house for probably 400 years before I saw any financial benefit! 


    I think I'll stay in my cute little two bed cottage.... it's probably bigger.... and much cheaper... ?


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