Making the decision to buy a house or a car involves a thorough preliminary analysis, since the investment is considerable and any doubts that may arise must be eliminated before proceeding with the operation.
One of the big mistakes that buyers make is not to analyze the “invisible expenses” that a purchase entails and, more specifically, when we talk about a house, we are talking about prior considerations such as orientation, manufacturing materials and, mainly, the insulation and energetic efficiency.
And this is where we talk about the concept of passive houses o Passivhaus, name given to houses that obtain certification according to the standard by the Passiv Haus Institute in Germany.
In this article, we talk about the meaning of a passive house and the advantages offered by this most ecological, sustainable and efficient form of housing in the world. As a value bet, the price of passive houses is increasingly competitive and is approaching that of conventional houses, with very short repayment periods.
Contents
What are passive houses?
The concept of Passivhaus (passive house) or passive houses originated in Germany in 1980 as a housing standard with maximum energy efficiency.
This type of construction uses a distribution pattern and insulating materials that minimize energy consumption and maximize homeowner comfort levels.
A passive house is all the more interesting when the outside atmospheric conditions are bad, both cold and hot, and it is there that in the 21st century and with increasing electricity and gas supply costs higher, they begin to be regarded as absolutely profitable and essential.
And, as if that were not enough, today the investment in a passive house is not very different from that of a normal house, since materials can be obtained each time at a lower cost, but which fully cover Passivhaus validation standards.
To deepen the passive house conceptwe are going to know the main advantages that it offers and, from there, we fully enter into the additional costs that this type of building entails.
Benefits of Passive Houses
We can create a large list of advantages that a passive house offers us, although we have limited it as follows:
Competitive prices
If in the 90s passive houses represented an additional cost that not everyone could afford, with excessively long amortizations, in the 21st century the prices of this type of sustainable housing they are much more competitive and year after year, they approach the cost of traditional housing.
Speaking of numbers, the biggest initial investment in passive housing pays for itself in about 5 to 10 years, or even less, thanks in particular to the savings made on heating and air conditioning consumption, which is up to 90% less than that of traditional housing. real estate.
In addition, with the entry into the market of more companies dedicated to the construction of this type of housing, the market price of all its components is regulated.
This is the case of Rubik Home, a company that is part of a group of companies with experience in construction that since 2003 has been actively involved in technological projects committed to the environment, offering advice and the means to obtain a house or a stay, under the “Passiv Haus standards”, that is to say with Energy class A++.
According to Javier López (CEO of Rubik Home): one of the characteristics of passive houses is that they have competitive prices. There are increasingly inexpensive proposals to meet these building systems that compete with traditional block construction.
Energy efficiency and economic savings
Having a house with full insulation means keeping the temperature more stable than a house with poor insulation. This represents a constant saving of electricity, water and gas from the first moment, and we will quickly notice it on our electricity bill.
To quantify the question, the difference in expenses for heating, air conditioning and hot water can exceed €2,500/year between a poorly insulated house (category G) and a Passivhaus house with A++ energy efficiency.
durability
If the pocket is still not an incentive for us, you should know that in terms of sustainability and ecologya passive house also generally incorporates environmentally sustainable components, when using the wood as a structural element of the construction system, as well as other environmentally friendly materials that RUBIK HOME uses to build them.
If, from an ecological point of view, where a passive house has the greatest impact, it is in terms of electricity and natural gas savingswhen for the supply of these are used Non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels which represent the usual trend in Spain. In other words, 74% of the energy consumed in Spain comes from oil, coal and gas.
The passive house standard is always looking for options to obtain sustainable energy through renewable energy sources, such as installation of solar panels, geothermal etc.
Thermal and acoustic insulation
Although we have already talked about the savings made for insulation against cold and heat, we should not forget about sound insulation. A well-insulated Passivhaus reduces up to 48 db of external noisea factor that obviously increases residents’ comfort but also improves their cognitive and concentration ability to perform tasks.
This fact currently implies greater relevance to the exercise of our work since, in view of the health crisis that we are still experiencing, teleworking is gaining in relevance.