ARTICLE IN PRESS

Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol

CEPHEUS results: measurements and occupants’ satisfaction provide

evidence for Passive Houses being an option for sustainable building
Jürgen Schniedersa,, Andreas Hermelinkb
a
Passive House Institute, Rheinstr. 44/46, D-64283 Darmstadt, Germany
b
University of Kassel, Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR), Kurt-Wolters-Str. 3, D-34109 Kassel, Germany
Available online 5 October 2004

Abstract

Passive houses offer extended living comfort with only 15–20% of the space heating demand of conventional new buildings while
the extra costs of this standard are only about 10% of the total building costs. In the first part of this paper, detailed measurements
for 11 ‘‘Passive House’’ projects with more than 100 dwelling units from the EU-funded demonstration project CEPHEUS (Cost
Efficient Passive Houses as EUropean Standards) are presented.
All projects exhibit extraordinarily low space heat consumptions. Compared with ordinary, newly erected buildings, 80% of the
space heat consumption could be saved. The total primary energy consumption (including household electricity) was less than 50%
of that of conventional new buildings. The measurements show that the buildings also offer comfortable indoor conditions in both
summer and winter.
Several social research studies revealed that the users are well pleased with their homes. The second part of the paper focuses on
low-income tenant’s satisfaction in the world’s first multi-story Passive Houses in Kassel, Germany. This building contrasts sharply
with the ‘‘standard’’ Passive House, occupied by its owners. A 2.5 year study was conducted from spring of 2000 to autumn of 2002.
The development of opinions, attitudes, behaviour, and satisfaction over time could be recorded. The building is a clear success, the
tenant’s satisfaction is high.
It is concluded that this building type fulfils the conditions of sustainability in social, ecological and economic respects and should
therefore be disseminated on a larger scale. To this end, the last part of the paper describes the development of the Passive House
standard in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, from the first demonstration project in 1991 to about 3500 dwelling units today. The
prerequisites for this development are analysed. Finally, the authors give their view about the political possibilities for pushing
Passive Houses into the market as well as for stimulating a market pull for this comfortable and energy efficient building type.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: ‘‘Passive House’’; Energy efficiency in buildings; User satisfaction

1. Passive Houses make ‘‘factor 10’’ come true warm flat’’, an annual useful energy input of 220 kWh
per square metre living area is needed for the building
An important brick for building up a sustainable stock whereas newly erected houses need about 70 kWh/
future is housing. In Germany about 22% of total end (m2a) and Passive Houses economise with 15 kWh/
use energy is for space heating in residential buildings. (m2a)—less than 10% of the building stock average.
As shown in Fig. 1, an immense savings potential exists This shows that ‘‘Factor 10’’ can be realised
here. To fulfil the demanded energy service ‘‘snug and compared to the building stock and ‘‘Factor 4’’
(Weizsäcker et al., 1997) even compared to the new
Corresponding legal standard that was introduced in Germany at the
author. Tel.: +49 6151 82 699 0; fax:
beginning of 2002.
+49 6151 82 699 11.
E-mail addresses: juergen.schnieders@passiv.de (J. Schnieders), The Passive House standard offers a cost-efficient way
hermelink@usf.uni-kassel.de (A. Hermelink). of minimizing the energy demand of new buildings in

0301-4215/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2004.08.049
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
152 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

distribution system. To permit this, it is essential that the

building’s heating load does not exceed 10 W/m2.
The small heating load is roughly equivalent with an
annual space heat requirement of 15 kWh/(m2a). Passive
Houses thus need about 80% less space heat than new
buildings designed to the various national building
codes valid in 1999 when the CEPHEUS projects were
planned and built. The small space heat requirement can
be met by heating the supply air in the ventilation
system.
The approach is cost-efficient because, following the
principle of simplicity, it relies on optimizing those
components of a building which are necessary in any
Fig. 1. Space heat demand of residential buildings (Comparison of
case: the building envelope, the windows and the
different (German) building standards).
automatic ventilation system (which is expedient any-
way for hygienic reasons). Improving the efficiency of
these components to the point at which a separate heat
accordance with the global principle of sustainability, distribution system is no longer needed yields savings
while at the same time improving the comfort experi- which contribute to financing the extra costs of
enced by building occupants. It thus creates the basis on improvement.
which it is possible to meet the remaining energy The standard has been named ‘‘Passive House’’
demand of new buildings completely from renewable because the ‘passive’ use of incidental heat gains—
sources—while keeping within the bounds set by the delivered externally by solar irradiation through the
limited availability of renewables and the affordability windows and provided internally by the heat emissions
of extra costs. of appliances and occupants—essentially suffices to keep
Thus Passive Houses might contribute a significant the building at comfortable indoor temperatures
share in building a sustainable future. To realise the throughout the heating period.
necessary market penetration, two key factors have to It is a part of the Passive House philosophy that
be considered: efficient technologies are also used to minimize the other
sources of energy consumption in the building, notably

Convincing evidence from pilot projects regarding electricity for household appliances. The target of the
measurement results of real consumption and occu- CEPHEUS project was to keep the total primary energy
pants’ satisfaction. Both aspects will be referred to in requirement for space heating, domestic hot water and
this article. In the first part, results from the European household appliances below 120 kWh/(m2a). This is
project CEPHEUS regarding measurement results are lower by a factor of 2–4 than the specific consumption
pointed out whereas the second part is dedicated to levels of new buildings designed to the standards
Passive House occupants’ experience. presently applicable across Europe.

Establishing the Passive House standard as main item
in a set of urgent policy measures. This aspect will be 2.2. What makes a building a Passive House?
examined in the section about market success and
sustainability. The various components of the Passive House
approach can be classified under the following basic
elements. The first three (superinsulation, heat recovery
and passive solar gain) are crucial to the Passive House
concept. To fully minimize environmental impacts,
2. Introduction to Passive Houses however, the other two are necessary (electrical effi-
ciency) or expedient (meeting remaining energy demand
2.1. Definition of the Passive House standard with renewables).

The term ‘‘Passive House’’ (which is only distantly 2.2.1. Superinsulation

related to ‘‘passive solar’’) refers to a construction The basic idea of the Passive House—to reduce heat
standard that can be met using a variety of technologies, losses to the point at which internal and solar gains
designs and materials. It is basically a refinement of the render a separate heating system superfluous—requires
low energy house standard. Passive Houses are buildings as a first step an excellent thermal insulation of exterior
which assure a comfortable indoor climate in summer building elements. The U-values of the exterior building
and in winter without needing a conventional heat elements generally range between 0.1 and 0.15 W/(m2K).
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 153

Fig. 2. Left: Wall insulation at the gable wall in the CEPHEUS sub-project 01-Hannover. Right: Thermal bridge reduction at the base point in 02-
Kassel.

The types of construction that can be used are highly on the supply air ducts, i.e. dust particles would
diverse: massive, lightweight and mixed constructions smoulder on hot surfaces and produce undesired smells.
were used in the CEPHEUS sub-projects. A simple calculation shows that this approach limits the
Transmission heat losses include not only the heat heating loads in Passive Houses to 10 W/m2.
flows through the regular building elements, they also To bring the space heat requirement down below
occur at corners, edges, junctions and penetrations. 15 kWh/(m2a), structural measures alone do not suffice
Excessive losses at such ‘thermal bridges’ must be in central Europe. It is only by means of high-efficiency
avoided. Fortunately, this is possible solely through Passive House heat recovery systems that the target can
geometrical analysis without costly multidimensional be achieved with acceptable structural measures given
heat flow computations. The method is explained in the current state of the art. Heat recovery effectiveness
(Feist, 1999; Feist and Schnieders, 1999). Examples for ratios of at least 75% are required; as field measure-
superinsulation and the reduction of thermal bridges are ments conducted within CEPHEUS have shown, these
shown in Fig. 2. ratios can indeed be achieved and even exceeded by
Growing importance attaches to the airtightness of means of counterflow heat exchangers (Fig. 3). Addi-
building envelopes. Leaking envelopes lead to a number tional fresh air preheating in a subsoil heat exchanger is
of problems that need to be prevented: Condensation possible, which further reduces the need for supplemen-
water damage, draughts, layers of cold air right above tary air heating.
the floor level, elevated energy consumption. For However, high overall efficiency is only achieved if the
example, typical n50-values (air changes per hour at a reduction of ventilation heat losses is not at the price of
pressure difference of 50 Pa between inside and outside) high electric power input. Electricity-saving fans and
of the UK building stock may be about 12–14 h1 , low pressure losses in the system are essential. The
buildings without ventilation system according to ventilation systems are generally driven by highly
current German regulations must have air leakage rates efficient direct current motors and consume an average
of 3 h1. A ‘‘Passive House’’ has a maximum n50 of 0.4 W/(m3/h) or less. They can achieve annual perfor-
0.6 h1. These values can be achieved with all types of mance factors (ratio between heat saved and electricity
construction; measured values for varying construction consumed) of 10–15. The ventilation system may be
types are given in Table 1 below. The principles for turned off in summer.
achieving this excellent airtightness were set out in a
special CEPHEUS building physics guideline (Peper, 2.2.3. Passive solar gain
1999) (cf. also Fig. 3). Efficiency potentials having been exploited, the
passive gain of incoming solar energy through glazing
2.2.2. Combining efficient heat recovery with dimensioned to provide sufficient daylight covers about
supplementary supply air heating one third of the minimized heat demand of the house. In
Passive houses have a continuous supply of fresh air, a Passive House, windows need to permit net solar
optimized to ensure occupant comfort. The flow is gains, above and beyond their normal lighting and (in
regulated to deliver precisely the quantity required for summer) ventilation functions. The preconditions for
excellent indoor air quality. Typical air change rates are this are: low heat losses through the window, suitable
about 0.25–0.4 h1. Higher air change rates would result glazing; and, if possible, southward orientation and low
in uncomfortably dry indoor air. It is permissible to heat degree of shading. Nevertheless, Passive Houses do not
the supply air to ca. 55 1C when required by means of a depend on building sites which permit large solar gains.
non-electrical heating element downstream from the Because the Passive House no longer needs a separate
heat recovery unit. Higher temperatures could lead to space heating system, a further requirement is that
dust carbonization in the supply air and possibly in or occupant comfort directly in front of the window must
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
154 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

01-Hannover 02-Kassel 03-Gothenburg 04-Egg 05-Hörbranz 06-Wolfurt 07-Dornbirn 08-Gnigl 09-Kuchl 10-Hallein 11-Horn 12-Steyr 13-Luzern 14-Rennes

For these projects, only values from preliminary airtightness measurements were available at the time of analysis. In the meantime, remedial work has been carried out; however, new
be ensured despite there being no radiator. From this,
the need for an overall window U-value of less than

Mixed
0.8 W/(m2K) can be derived for Middle European

11b
climate (cf. e.g. (Schnieders and Feist, 1999)). This
value can only be achieved with triple low-emissivity

Timber
glazing filled with heavy noble gases. Such glazing

0.57
achieves, depending upon the fill gas and the coating, U-
values down to 0.5 W/(m2K) and a total solar energy
Solid

1.6b
transmittance (g-value) of 50–60%. Even in the short
heating season of the Passive House, from November to
March, the energy balance of such glazing is positive. In
Mixed

contrast, double low-e glazing has net losses in the core

0.61

winter period.
Window frames for Passive Houses need good
thermal insulation. The thermal bridge at the edge seal
Mixed

0.58

is minimized by using stainless-steel or plastic spacers

and by means of increasing the depth to which the
glazing is inserted within the sash/frame. Today, a lot of
Mixed

manufacturers, mainly in Germany and Austria, supply

2.2a

thermally insulated frames with U-values below 0.8 W/

(m2K) (cf. Fig. 3).
Timber

Correct installation is necessary, too. If the windows

0.97

are positioned within the insulation plane of the thermal

envelope and that insulation overlaps the window frame
as far as possible, the thermal bridge loss coefficient of
Timber

installation can be zero. Otherwise, the overall U-value

1.1

may increase by up to 50%.

2.2.4. Electric efficiency means efficient appliances

Mixed

In Passive Houses, the heat requirement for space

0.33
Measured volume-adjusted n50 building leakage indices for the CEPHEUS projects as built

heating is reduced massively; the requirement for

In 09-Kuchl, a large internal leakage is probably the reason for the high n50-value.

domestic hot water is also reduced by efficient technol-

ogies. Under these circumstances, the household elec-
tricity requirement is the largest element of final energy
Solid

0.47

demand for the dwelling; if it remains at the levels

commonplace today, it is about twice as high as the
Solid

0.51

energy demand for heating. The task within CEPHEUS

was therefore to develop tools by which households can
be equipped with high-efficiency electric appliances.
Through fitting the Passive Houses with efficient
household appliances, hot water connections for wash-
Timber

0.31

ing machines and dishwashers, airing cabinets and

compact fluorescent lamps, electricity consumption is
reduced considerably compared to the average housing
stock, without any loss of comfort or convenience. All
Solid

0.35

measurement results are not available.

building services are designed to operate with maximum

efficiency. High-efficiency appliances are often no more
expensive than average ones, or pay back any additional
Construction type Mixed

cost through electricity savings.

0.30

2.2.5. Meeting the remaining energy demand with

renewables
Mean n50 [h1]

Cost-optimized solar thermal systems can meet about

40–60% of the entire low-temperature heat demand of a
Table 1

Project

Passive House. The low remaining energy demand

b
a

moreover makes something possible which would

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 155

Fig. 3. Airtight and thermal-bridge-free junction at the eaves in 11-Horn; high-efficiency heat recovery unit in 01-Hannover; insulated window frame
made from aluminium—polyurethane foam—wood.

otherwise be unaffordable, and for which available Part of CEPHEUS was a comprehensive measure-
supply would not suffice: over the annual balance, the ment project for the determination of energy perfor-
remaining energy consumption (for space heating, mance indices and thermal comfort. Unfortunately,
domestic hot water and household electricity) may be some projects have not yet been occupied during the
offset completely by renewable sources, making the measurement phase. Consequently, results from the
operation phase—which is most important for a continuous measurements are not available for a
building’s life cycle impact—in a Passive House fully sufficiently long period in all projects. Nonetheless,
neutral in terms of both primary energy and climate. measurements from more than 100 dwelling units in 11
Within CEPHEUS, this has been realized in the 01- sub-projects in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were
Hannover sub-project—at prices within the normal evaluated. In the following, the most important results
market range: the houses were built at construction from the common evaluation are presented.
costs (excluding real estate and VAT) of 932 h/m2 living
area, whereas low energy houses at the same location 3.1. Airtightness testing
were sold at about 1200 h/m2. The required share of a
wind turbine was available at a cost of 1250 h per In all CEPHEUS building projects, the remaining air
dwelling unit (average 117 m2). leakage rates were measured by means of building
airtightness tests in accordance with EN 13829.
The results documented in Table 1 show that the
remaining air leakage rates ranged between 0.30 and
3. Results of the CEPHEUS project 0.61 h1 in 9 CEPHEUS projects. In most of the other
projects, a better result would be possible by means of
Within the CEPHEUS project, 221 housing units were carrying out remedial work on the junctions where air
built to Passive House standards in five European infiltration was identified. Wherever no rigorous air-
countries. The scientific evaluation of the operation tightness design was presented (particularly in 14-
should demonstrate technical feasibility (in terms of Rennes) the results were far poorer.
achieving the targeted energy performance indices) at CEPHEUS has thus proven in practice that the high
low extra cost (target: compensation of extra investment levels of airtightness requisite for the Passive House
cost by cost savings in operation) for a variety of standard can be achieved in all construction types in a
different buildings, constructions and designs imple- reproducible manner, that the recommendations made
mented by architects and developers in several European in (Peper, 1999) provide an excellent basis for air-
countries. Investor-purchaser acceptance and user be- tightness, and that rigorous planning of airtightness
haviour under real-world conditions should be studied. details is the key to success.
The opportunity for both the lay and expert public to
experience the Passive House standard hands-on at 3.2. Energy performance indices
several sites in Europe was to be created. Finally,
CEPHEUS should create the preconditions for broad In order to render the energy indices of the projects
market introduction of cost-efficient Passive Houses. comparable, a uniform procedure for calculating treated
Fig. 4 gives an impression of the locations and the types floor area (TFA) was defined. The TFA essentially
of Passive Houses that have been constructed there. comprises the sum of the floor areas of all residential
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
156 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

Fig. 4. Locations of the CEPHEUS projects.

rooms within the thermal envelope; it includes half of shows the measured space heat consumption levels
the floor areas of ancillary rooms within the thermal for the CEPHEUS projects. The graph shows the
envelope. The TFA is about half the size of the gross space heat consumption per square metre (TFA)
floor area that is frequently used as a reference. As a and year for each dwelling unit. For each
result, the already outstanding energy indices are about project, a horizontal bar indicates the TFA-weighted
twice as high as if they were based on the gross floor mean.
area. A precise definition of TFA calculation is given in The differences within individual projects are even
(Schnieders et al., 2001). That publication also presents larger than those between the projects. Such degrees of
and discusses the measurement results in more detail variance in space heat consumption are also known
than is possible here. from measurements in the building stock. In addition to
differences in the constructions of dwelling units, they
3.2.1. Energy consumption for space heating are due above all to different indoor temperatures, the
3.2.1.1. Measured space heating consumption. Space impact of which is particularly strong in multifamily
heating consumption is the most important criterion apartment buildings (02-Kassel, 09-Kuchl and 06-
for assessing the CEPHEUS Passive Houses. Fig. 5 Wolfurt).
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 157

Fig. 5. Measured space heat consumption of CEPHEUS buildings per square metre TFA (partially extrapolated). For every project the TFA-
weighted mean is displayed as a horizontal bar.

3.2.1.2. Normalized annual consumption levels. It is lowest in those projects which were not yet fully
known from simulation computations and from mea- completed or where the occupants moved in only during
surements that indoor temperatures have a considerable or shortly before the measurement period. In all houses
influence on space heat consumption in Passive Houses. that were already occupied for a longer period, savings
It is therefore not appropriate to compare directly the are more than 80%.
measurement results shown in Fig. 5 with previously
calculated values, particularly as measurement data 3.2.2. Energy consumption for domestic hot water
extending over a whole year are not available for all The measured useful heat consumption levels for
projects. In order to allow for comparisons, the domestic hot water heating exhibit considerable var-
measured values were extrapolated to a full year using iance, as does the space heat consumption. On average,
the monthly procedure pursuant to EN 832, and the consumption levels correspond roughly to the
normalized to an indoor temperature of 20 1C. In the reference values, i.e. the typical consumption (25 l per
present instance, this type of extrapolation can be person per day at 60 1C) of dwelling units with
considered conservative (for a reasoning of this cf. comparable occupancy ratios. As hot water consump-
(Schnieders et al., 2001)). In addition, it is generally tion is also a characteristic of the comfort demands of
known in the construction sector that energy consump- occupants, the study shows that the demands of the
tion levels, particularly those for space heat, in the first occupants of the CEPHEUS projects do not deviate
heating season can be higher than those that develop significantly from the general average.
later during continuous operation—obviously, the
evaluation could not compensate for this effect. 3.2.3. Household electricity consumption
Fig. 6 compares the normalized space heat consump- Given the extremely reduced space heat consumption
tion levels to reference consumption levels of conven- of Passive Houses, the share of electricity consumption
tional new buildings that have the same geometry and in the overall energy consumption is higher. This applies
are built in accordance with locally applicable construc- particularly in terms of primary energy. Consequently,
tion law, and with the space heat requirement values the CEPHEUS projects also made efforts to reduce
calculated in advance (using the Passive House Planning household electricity consumption.
Package (PHPP) (Feist et al., 2002)). The PHPP consists Some projects exhibit major savings while others do
of a number of Excel tables and performs a steady-state not. This can be explained by the circumstance that in
energy analysis of a Passive House based on the some projects electricity consumption was not given the
European standard EN 832. It has proved to be an same priority in implementation as space heating
excellent, relatively easy-to-use tool for properly design- consumption. In the 01-Hannover and 06-Wolfurt
ing Passive Houses. projects, however, implementation of the electricity
Compared to the reference consumption of conven- conservation approach was demonstrated convincingly
tional new buildings, analysis of the normalized space (38% savings in Hannover)—although, in Germany and
heat consumption shows that the buildings saved 84% Austria, it is generally up to the occupants to purchase
space heat over the area-weighted mean. Savings were equipment.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
158 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

Fig. 6. Space heat consumption levels determined by measurements, extrapolated for a whole year and normalized to 20 1C indoor temperature
(‘normalized space heat consumption’) compared to the consumption of conventional new buildings and to the values calculated in advance using the
Passive House Planning Package (PHPP).

It should be noted in this context that the measured and primary energy savings of more than 50% were
value contains the electricity consumption of building achieved, space heat consumption was even reduced by
services systems, including the ventilation system. 80%.

3.2.4. Final and primary energy consumption

3.2.5. Heat loads
This section is concerned with the non-renewable
The downward leap in costs when the Passive House
proportions of final (also referred to as delivered) and
standard is reached occurs because the separate heating
primary energy consumption. Thus, for instance, energy
system can be dispensed with. In order to reach the
consumption for hot water heating provided directly by
extremely low space heat demand, a balanced ventila-
a solar thermal installation is not included in the final
tion system with heat recovery is required. In a Passive
energy consumption figures. In contrast, consumption
House, the heat load conveyable by means of the
for household, fan and building services electricity, and
necessary supply air suffices to keep the house warm.
electricity for joint uses across several dwelling units are
The measured mean daily heat loads are therefore of
included in full in the consumption figures stated. The
particular interest.
final energy consumption figures already contain any
In many CEPHEUS buildings, the measured heat
distribution losses and losses at heat producers within
loads were small enough that heating with the supply air
the buildings.
would have been possible. In the cases with higher
Fig. 7 provides an overview of the mean useful, final
heating loads, explanations like faults in the planning
and primary energy consumption levels of the projects
(e.g. neglected shading which reduces solar gains) or
(sites). Where no data were available for a complete
building (e.g. poor airtightness) phase have been found.
year, the available measured data were extrapolated. In
Fig. 8 there is given a comparison of the consumptions
of the CEPHEUS projects and buildings with the same 3.3. Indoor temperatures
geometry that might have been erected at the same
location obeying only the local legal restrictions. 3.3.1. Indoor temperatures in winter
The figures illustrate that in all projects exceedingly Fig. 9 shows the mean values of the measured indoor
low primary energy consumption levels were achieved. temperatures in winter. The values generally refer to the
Compared to conventional new buildings, useful, final months of November–February. 07-Dornbirn was only
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 159

Fig. 7. Comparison of useful, final and primary energy consumption for space heat, domestic hot water and all electricity applications in the houses.
For each project, the cumulative bar at the left represents useful energy consumption, that in the middle final energy and that on the right primary
energy consumption. The primary energy factors were determined from GEMIS 4.0 (GEMIS, 2000): Gas 1.15, electricity 2.5, district heat: 0.7, wood
pellets: 0.1.

Fig. 8. Comparison of the measured energy consumptions of all CEPHEUS projects (TFA-weighted mean) with the corresponding values of
ordinary, newly erected buildings. In the values for electricity and total consumption, household electricity is included. This must be taken into
account when comparing with data from other projects where only heating and DHW are given.

occupied in late December 2000; here the temperature 3.3.2. Indoor temperatures in summer
data are for January and February. Summer indoor temperatures are of particular inter-
The figure shows that in all CEPHEUS buildings the est: Would the excellent thermal insulation and opti-
mean indoor temperature over all occupied zones and mized passive solar energy use perhaps lead to
the whole measurement period was above 20 1C. overheating in summer? Due to the truncated measure-
Occupants typically set temperatures between 21 1C ment period, data for the summer were only available
and 22 1C; the range of the occupied houses is, however, for few projects. Fig. 10 presents the mean indoor
from 17 1C to 25 1C (the mean temperatures below 17 1C temperatures between 1 May and 31 August. The figure
measured in 01-Hannover belong to unoccupied further shows for each house the temperature that was
houses). not exceeded for 95% of the time in the stated months.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
160 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

Fig. 9. Mean indoor temperatures in winter (generally from 1 November to 28 February).

Fig. 10. Mean indoor temperatures from May to August and 95th percentile of hourly mean values of average house-specific indoor temperatures for
the 01-Hannover, 02-Kassel and 09-Kuchl projects. The black lines cutting across the projects represent the overall mean values of the three sites.

This latter value is a better measure of summer-time comfortable range. On closer examination of the
comfort than the maximum temperature reached, as temperature curves it was found that the users can
individual temperature peaks can occur in the absence of attain highly comfortable summer-time temperatures
occupants or in exceptional situations and are thus not through appropriate ventilation behaviour. Occupancy
representative. ratios and shading elements are important, but are
The results show that the summer-time indoor climate secondary to ventilation behaviour. These issues are
in 01-Hannover and 02-Kassel is acceptable. A tem- discussed in greater detail in (Peper et al., 2001).
perature of 27 1C is only exceeded in exceptional cases.
09-Kuchl has about 1 K higher temperatures, but room 3.4. Proof of cost-effectiveness
temperatures in Kuchl are relatively high in winter, too:
the mean temperatures in summer are only 1.8 K higher The improved construction quality of the building
than those in winter. envelope and the highly efficient ventilation systems in
The measurement results show clearly that summer Passive Houses require extra investment. If the ap-
temperatures in Passive Houses can be kept in a proach is pursued rigorously, this is counterbalanced by
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 161

projects
the avoided investment cost for a conventional heating

181
8%

162
616
system. However, in most sub-projects of CEPHEUS it

8.6

5.1

6.2
All

36
was not possible to reduce the overall costs of building

Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Austria, Switzerland,
services; in several projects, planners and builders were

Luzern
reluctant to dispense with the heat distribution system.

10%

1508
24.4

401
7.6
In total, the extra construction and engineering system

13

39

10
5
investment was found to be between 0% and 17% of the

Kuchl Hallein Horn Steyr

15%

1017
pure construction costs. On average over 12 projects, the

23.8

228
5.1

9.0
12

56
specific extra investment cost is 91 Euro/m2 or 8% of

Includes the additional costs for solar thermal systems, which, with reference to the kWh saved, were generally higher than those for energy efficiency measures.
total building cost.

13%

1281
28.4

Includes e.g. auxiliary electricity consumption for ventilation, filter replacement, reduced max. demand charge for district heat, no need for chimney sweep.
163
4.1

6.6
A good measure for economic appraisal is provided

11

59
1
by determining the costs of the energy conserved. For
this, the extra investment for the efficiency technology

7%

498
7.4

4.1

4.8
10

31

30

77
and the solar thermal installations is levelized across 25

Location-specific energy prices. In some projects, the use of district heat was obligatory. In many Austrian projects, wood pellets were used.
years of service life at 4% real interest; to this is added

n.a.
the additional operating cost of the Passive House

09

25
components. By dividing the annual costs thus deter-

Hörbranz Wolfurt Dornbirn Gnigl

mined by the annual fuel savings, we receive a sum per

0%

429
4.1

1.1
08

43

74
kilowatt-hour saved. This ratio is well suited for

0
comparisons with the present or potential future costs
of energy supply.

17%

42.1
107

224
744
4.1
The cost of the heat saved in Passive Houses
07

17
1
determined in this way averages across the 12 projects
at 6.2 Cent/kWh. This compares with present reference

10.2
8%

111
622
4.1

5.5
06

10

58
costs of final energy averaging 5.1 Cent/kWh in the
CEPHEUS projects. Compared to the typical cost of
solar thermal heat, which is currently 10–15 Cent/kWh,
13%

22.1

208
789
5.0
this is a very favourable value–and all the more so with
05

71

11
3

regard to potential energy price increases across the long

11%

service life of buildings.

10.1
Gothenburg Egg

165
410
4.1

8.8
04

66
4

Table 2 shows some data for the different projects and

illustrates the great differences in cost-effectiveness.
Germany, Germany, Sweden,

More details can be found in Schnieders et al. (2001).

The additional investment costs of the Passive House
2%

286
506
2.0

4.7

4.4
03

20

58

standard may be expected to decrease significantly in the

future. Thermal insulation is already relatively inexpen-
Hannover Kassel

sive, whilst suitable windows and high efficiency

8%

162
485
6.4

4.8

7.2
02

40

73

ventilation systems make up for most of the additional

costs. If Passive House windows with triple glazing were
mass produced, they might cost about 10% more than
12%

37
12.4

217
953
6.1

6.2

conventional windows with double glazing. Compact

01

32

building services, on the other hand, need not be much

Additional operating costs (without heat costs) h/
Some financial aspects of the CEPHEUS projects

Costs of final energy for heat & DHW reference

Additional investment for energy efficiency and

Costs of final energy for heat & DHW h/DU/a

more expensive than a common refrigerator. By analys-

ing the development of investment costs it is expected
Specific additional investment 1000 h/DU

Reference final energy price Cent/kWhc

that within a few years building Passive Houses will be

economical even at present energy prices.
Costs of kWh saved Cent/kWh

4. Occupants’ satisfaction in Passive Houses

In two of the German CEPHEUS projects—01-

Hannover and 02-Kassel—social science studies were
renewables %a
Number DU

case h/DU/a

conducted. Several studies reveal quite high levels of

satisfaction of Passive House owners. These findings are
Table 2

Project

DUb

verified by the results reported in (Danner, 2001) and

Nr.

b
a

(von Oesen, 2001), which show the high degree of

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
162 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

acceptance in the Hannover-Kronsberg Passive Houses.

Satisfaction with the indoor climate in winter is stated
by a substantial majority of occupants as good to very
good. Not a single occupant gave a negative rating.
Moreover, the higher surface temperatures and the even
temperature distribution throughout the space (no
temperature stratification) compared to ‘normal’ houses
are experienced as highly pleasant. For summer, too, the
occupants confirm the measurement results—88% of
those surveyed state that they are satisfied or very
satisfied with the indoor climate in summer. Air quality
is rated by 95% of occupants as good to very good; no
negative ratings were reported. There was not a single Fig. 11. Multi-story Passive Houses in Kassel (Germany).
negative assessment of the ventilation system with heat
recovery either.
The main difference between the Hannover and plinary approach:
Kassel projects were the occupants themselves. Today,
several thousand dwelling units exist in Passive Houses
The Center for Environmental Systems Research of
which are owned by their occupants. Thus, the owner- the University of Kassel
occupied Passive Houses in Hannover can be regarded
The Passive House-Institute in Darmstadt
as a kind of ‘‘standard case’’. This contrasts sharply with
Innovatec, Kassel (engineering of the innovative
the world’s first multi-story Passive Houses with 40 flats system for heating and ventilation)
for low-income tenants, which were erected at very
the builder: the non-profit public housing association
reasonable costs by a local social housing company in of the city of Kassel (GWG).
Kassel, in 2000.
The following were the principal elements of the
research:
4.1. The Passive Houses in Kassel (Germany)

analysis of user behaviour by means of social-science
All Passive House characteristics mentioned above based inquiries
are met by the two houses shown in Fig. 11.
detailed research on the reasons for the user behaviour
Both buildings—with 23 and 17 flats respectively and
derivation of measures to improve technical and
a total living area of ca. 2900 m2—are of massive behavioural ‘‘deficiencies’’
construction. Calculated and measured space heat
evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures.
demand is approximately 15 kWh/(m2a). The buildings
contradict the wide-spread view that solar houses have At the beginning of the project, it was hypothesised
to be strictly oriented southwards. Due to unchangeable that the effect of ‘‘tenant-behaviour’’ on the demand for
building regulations the buildings’ main axis is oriented heating energy might be much higher than in ‘‘owner
north–south. cases.’’ Tenants usually do not identify themselves as
It is remarkable that the additional costs compared to much with their dwelling and its characteristics as
a building according to the legal German standard of owners do. Therefore the motivation to deal with
1995 was less than 10% (Pfluger and Feist, 2001b). In unfamiliar technologies and the willingness to change
May 2000 the first tenants moved in. customs might be lower.
To get reliable results an interdisciplinary approach
was chosen:
4.2. The research project ‘‘User-oriented design of
Passive Houses’’
On a technical level, energy consumption, corresponding
states of technical systems, and system parameters were
The research project ‘‘User-oriented design of Passive measured and calculated, partly within the CEPHEUS
Houses’’ was conducted over a 2.5 year period, starting project and partly tailored to the project’s needs.
with the moving in of the first tenants. The ‘‘Deutsche
On a social-science level, the focus was on the effect of
Bundesstiftung Umwelt’’ funded the evaluation project. individual strategies and behaviours on energy con-
The project’s main aim was to find out which require- sumption and on personal, technical and indoor-
ments Passive Houses have to fulfil to be able to reach a climatic conditions which influence these behaviours.
significant share on the building market and thus
contribute to a more sustainable future. Several partners A longitudinal study with three partly standardised
were involved in this project, reflecting the interdisci- personal interviews was conducted as main part of the
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 163

social science research. The interviews were conducted in

November 2000, March 2001 and May 2002. The aim
was to interview members of all households in the
buildings. Percentages for actually interviewed tenants
are 91.7% for the first interview, 94.7% for the second
interview and 82.1% for the third interview.
For longitudinal studies, it is desirable to interview
the same tenants. Due to higher fluctuation in social
housing, there are some differences compared to the
usually quite stable conditions in flats that are occupied
by their owners. Nevertheless, the percentages for
actually interviewed tenants occupying the same flat
during the whole study were 84.2% in building 1 and
Fig. 12. Reasons for moving in.
92.3% in building 2. These results can be regarded as
very satisfactory.

4.3. Results increased. This leads to reduced humidity; on the other

hand the efficiency of the heat recovery decreases, which
Knowing why people moved in is important in leads to significantly higher energy inputs. Therefore the
stimulating the market for Passive Houses. In its first readiness of the tenants to keep the windows shut is a
advertising campaign, the social housing company decisive factor.
stressed the characteristics ‘‘Passive House’’ and ‘‘low Fig. 13 shows the self-assessment of the tenants’
energy demand’’. Unfortunately the response was weak. ventilation behaviour, i.e. for each window in their flat
Only after returning to stress conservative features like they were asked about opening/tilting in detail with the
‘‘very attractive site,’’ ‘‘balcony’’ and ‘‘new buildings’’ help of a plan of the flats layout.
there was a big response. In leading the potential tenants Complete answers for a typical whole day were given
through the flats there was no special allusion to the by the dwellers of 31 flats. For example in flat 21, on a
‘‘Passive House;’’ the only thing that had to be typical day tilting of all windows adds to 60 min and
explained were the missing radiators: ‘‘Nevertheless, it opening adds to 20 min. The flats are sorted by (1) tilted
will get warm!’’ Altogether, the housing company was windows and (2) opened windows. In general the
very successful in renting the flats. Fig. 12 shows reasons window ventilation is very low, i.e within a tolerable
for moving in. range that does not upset the energy balance. The
Obviously the reported reasons reflect the experience hypothesis that smokers (flats indicated with ‘‘S’’) might
of the housing company. Definitely the least important open the windows more often could not be verified.
reason was the ‘‘Passive House’’ feature, whereas More apparent is the relation between manual ventila-
without a balcony hardly anybody would have moved tion and the evaluation of the automatic controlled
in. ventilation. There is a significant correlation between
There is a quite a large range of required tempera- high manual ventilation and low opinion expressed of
tures. During the interviews, we asked the tenants about the controlled ventilation. As to the ventilation system,
how they felt the current temperature while the real on average it is viewed as good (4.1). Apart from this
temperatures were measured. The temperatures that total evaluation of the heating system, the tenants were
were judged to be ‘‘exactly right’’ varied between 19.4 1C asked to evaluate the ventilation system with respect to
and 24 1C. The measured average temperature is about certain characteristics (Fig. 14).
21.51C, and thus matches the CEPHEUS average. As Fig. 14 shows, the initial problem of noise lost
According to the theory of thermal comfort, the indoor significance, due to slight technical enhancements and
air temperature should be lower when the temperature better information of the tenants (e.g. explanation that
of surrounding surfaces is higher. Due to the super- ventilators get noisy if filters are neither cleaned nor
insulation of walls and windows, surface temperatures changed). The evaluations of ‘‘producing wanted
are very close to the air temperature. Nevertheless there temperature’’ and ‘‘controllability’’ are very closely
were no lower indoor air temperatures than in ‘‘normal’’ related. Many tenants had not yet become accustomed
buildings. That means, there is a comfort gain due to to the quite slow change of temperature resulting from
higher ‘‘operative’’ temperatures. manipulations of the temperature control. This slow
Ventilation behaviour may strongly influence the change, which may take several hours for occupants to
energetic performance of a Passive House. Regular detect, is due to the very low installed heating power.
ventilation by opening the windows has two disadvan- This is quite different from radiators, where thermostat
tages: by opening the windows, the ventilation rate is manipulations produce an immediate temperature feed-
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
164 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

Fig. 13. Ventilation by opening the windows compared to evaluation of ventilation system.

Fig. 14. Detailed evaluation of the ventilation system.

back. ‘‘Removal of odours’’ is another point, where a in the bathroom). The switch is situated in the kitchen
change in the handling could be helpful. Each flat is and thus produces the misconception that it is dedicated
equipped with a ‘‘maximum ventilation’’ switch that only to kitchen odours. In building 1 the operation of
causes very high ventilation for about 30 min in the this switch has been recorded. Eighteen out of 23
whole flat, including the bathroom (the toilet is situated households are using the ‘‘maximum ventilation’’ switch
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 165

less than once per day. Higher use surely would increase great relief could be felt, resulting from an apparently
the opinion expressed of ‘‘removal of odours.’’ quite high anxiety before the winter that was increased
Quite often it is assumed that because of excessive by friends’ comments like: ‘‘Would you like an electric
dryness the satisfaction with humidity is low in houses heater as a Christmas present?’’ The absence of
with controlled ventilation. Fig. 15 shows the satisfac- radiators was misunderstood as absence of heating.
tion with humidity for the heating period 2001/02. In traditional research about user behaviour in the
According to Fig. 15 on average this assumption is not field of household energy, the aim has often been to find
true for the Passive Houses in Kassel. Also the direct explanations for a person’s energy demand
evaluation of this point might have scored higher, if resulting from psychological variables. Usually tem-
the tenants were more willing to follow the instructions. perature is the most important indicator with a direct
Before the second winter, the tenants were informed that effect on the energy demand. Unfortunately this relation
humidity would increase if they used the ‘‘low ventila- is no longer valid in multi-family Passive Houses, which
tion’’ position instead of the ‘‘normal ventilation’’ makes it impossible to draw inferences about prospec-
position. According to the measurements, general air tive heating demand from psychological models (e.g.
quality wouldnot have been affected significantly by this Fishbein–Ajzen’s model of planned behaviour). Fig. 17
measure. Indeed the information letter was quite shows the very weak relation between energy use for
effective, but still should have been more effective. space heating and the average indoor air temperature.
While in November the ‘‘low ventilation’’ position on The figure reveals that the correlation between space
average was only used 18% of the day, it increased to heat energy in the flats and the average temperature in
about 28% in December and about 60% for the rest of the flats is quite low ðr ¼ 0:38Þ; as is the correlation
the winter. between total energy input into the flat and the average
Fig. 16 shows satisfaction with indoor air tempera- temperature in the flat ðr ¼ 0:5Þ: On the first sight this
tures, which was generally high. The satisfaction seems to contradict the statement in 3.2.1 that ‘‘y
expressed with the temperatures in the living room and indoor temperatures have a considerable influence on
bathroom shows an interesting phenomenon. Before the space heat consumption in Passive Houses.’’ Indeed for
first winter there was high scepticism about the whole buildings the correlation between the average
unfamiliar ventilation system. The question ‘‘Are you indoor temperature and the space heat demand is high.
worried that the ventilation system would not heat If it is about flats in multi-family houses, the correlation
sufficiently in winter’’ was answered as follows: On a is much lower, especially because of cross-heat-flows
scale from 0 (not worried at all) to 6 (very much between neighbouring flats, which do not affect the
worried) 21 out of 29 interviewed persons answered energy balance of the whole building, because they take
between 3 and 6. After the first winter, the same people place inside the building. The absolute amount of those
answered the question ‘‘How satisfied are you with how heat flows between flats is the same as in ordinary
the ventilation system heated your flat? as follows: on a buildings. Due to the very low total consumption in
scale from 0 (very dissatisfied) to 6 (very satisfied) 26 out Passive Houses the relative share of these cross-heat-
of 29 answered between 3 and 6 (total average 4.7). A flows in a flat’s space heat demand is much higher

Fig. 15. Satisfaction with humidity during heating period.

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
166 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

Fig. 16. Satisfaction with room temperatures.

Fig. 17. Energy use and indoor air temperature (sorted by average temperature October 2001–April 2002).

than in other buildings, which reduces the temperature- earlier in this paper. Another factor that contributes to
space heat demand-correlation. Above, compared to the heating is the tenants’ body heat. This share shows
‘‘normal’’ houses, the relation between energy for space the same pattern as the other sources.
heating and hot water and electricity is highly distorted. Fig. 17 also reveals in detail that in this project the
Whereas in normal ‘‘houses’’ the energy input for space projected energy use for space heating was matched,
heating clearly dominates the share of hot water and which was proved by measurements within the CE-
electricity, there are quite similar shares of these three PHEUS project. (Pfluger and Feist, 2001a). Another
heating sources in Passive Houses, as has been explained insight is that neither extreme ‘‘savers’’ nor extreme
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 167

prodigals could be detected. There are no outliers in the The questions regarding comfort were of the type:
distribution. ‘‘(Ventilation/Living in a Passive House/living in a
Sustainable buildings should not only need little Passive House in winter/living in a Passive House in
energy but also enhance the human well-being and summer) is different from other buildings. Do you feel
human health. Low-energy houses are often prone to that this tends to reduce comfort or to increase it?’’ All
mold problems, and of course this would affect the results indicate a perceived increase of comfort. Follow-
dwellers’ health. In both Passive Houses no mold ing from the measurement results reported above it is
problems were reported by the tenants. They felt quite maybe not surprising that this is also felt in summer—
a positive effect of the Passive House on their well-being even slightly more than in winter. This is due to the very
as Fig. 18 shows. high satisfaction with indoor air temperatures in
About 50% of the tenants feel better than before. Due summer: on a scale from 0 (very dissatisfied) to 6 (very
to lack of evidence from ordinary new houses this effect satisfied) the average evaluation was 5.2!
partly might be explained by the evaluated passive The results show that most of the tenants became
houses simply being new. accustomed to the unusual surrounding very quickly.
There were similar results regarding the evalua- Fig. 20 summarizes the tenants’ opinions.
tion of comfort compared to conventional houses Very easy control of the ventilation, very high thermal
(cf. Fig. 19). comfort and air quality make the tenants feel very

Fig. 18. Evaluation of changes in sanitary well-being.

Fig. 19. Evaluation of comfort.

 ARTICLE IN PRESS
168 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

Fig. 20. Tenants’ opinions about their Passive Houses.

comfortable. In addition, they are realizing that costs 5. The exchange rate of the indoor air should be
for heating are extremely low. In contrast to occupants measured after the installation of the ventilation
of conventional buildings, as to costs for space heating, system. Unwanted high ventilation rates should be
they will be nearly unaffected by further increasing avoided to provide for agreeable humidity.
energy prices. This high acceptance of Passive Houses by 6. There should be a prompt or a display indicating the
tenants is of crucial importance in marketing this ultra- failure of components like ventilators. Tenants do
efficient building type. not care as much about the devices’ proper
functioning as owners do.
4.4. Recommendations for ‘‘user-oriented design’’ 7. It should be absolutely clear which doors have to be
closed to avoid unnecessary heat losses. In building
Although the general satisfaction of the tenants is 2 the inner door of the porch was designed to
high, we have some recommendations, which are of provide for a tight building. Unfortunately the
course equally valid for owner-occupied houses. porch was used extensively for parking prams and
bicycles. Therefore the inner door quite often stood
1. ‘‘Basic needs’’ should always be considered in the open. As a result, all doors and cellar windows were
design of any house type. Especially in Passive equipped with small signs saying that in winter all
Houses for tenants these basic needs like ‘‘easy doors and windows should be kept closed.
accessible, sufficient space for prams and bicycles’’ 8. Written information about the handling of the
or ‘‘cool storerooms’’ have a considerable impact on heating and ventilation system only yielded moder-
satisfaction and acceptance. ate understanding. Therefore we strongly recom-
2. There should also be a minimal ventilation for the mend that a qualified person should explain and
staircase. Coming from their well ventilated flats, demonstrate the handling of the system, e.g. change
some tenants were disturbed by stale air in the of filters, as soon as a tenant moves in.
staircase. 9. A clue to the tenants’ appreciation of extremely
3. In rare cases there was disturbance from odours low heating costs is an easily understandable
from make-up air. Intense investigations showed consumption bill. Although in each flat meters
that under unfavourable wind conditions there was for energy used for space heating had been installed,
a short circuit between the openings for exhaust air most of the tenants could not discern which of the
and make-up air. This has to be avoided by various figures on the bill really indicated the
arranging these openings in a way that avoids short cost for space heating. An interviewer, qualified
circuits. In the project this enhancement could be in engineering, needed 20 min to understand
realised by easy technical changes. the bill that was presented to him by a disenchanted
4. It has been mentioned already that people had tenant.
problems to understand the ‘‘maximum ventilation’’ 10. At the beginning, the housing company provided for
switch. The easiest solution is another switch in the a change of filters every 6 months. Intermediate
bathroom/WC. cleaning of the filters turned out to be quite an effort
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 169

with only little success. Now filters are changed

every 3 months.
11. Components like fans, heat exchangers, and
switches are not of high enough quality. Technical
failures like broken fans, leakages in heat exchan-
gers and failure of switches may trigger dissatisfac-
tion with the whole Passive House, although these
components are not specific to Passive Houses. Just
because tenants may need some time to perceive a
failure, high quality standards taken for granted in
other industrial branches should be met soon.

5. Market success and sustainability

Both projects—CEPHEUS and ‘‘User oriented design

Fig. 21. The number of Passive Houses doubles about every year.
of Passive Houses’’ clearly identified the Passive House
as feasible, credible and comfortable both from the
technical and social point of view. This leads to high
acceptance and satisfaction of the occupants. CE-
PHEUS showed that all these advantages can be benefits of the controlled ventilation system, etc. This
reached with little more initial investment and that the was exactly what was needed as starting point to
life cycle cost is probably lower than in all other known convince scientists, building experts and potential
building types. customers. Another prerequisite for follow-up projects
What has to be done then to help Passive Houses gain was the fact that, except for the higher quality of
the market share they deserve? components, Passive Houses are rather similar in
To be a market success requires that a product offers construction to standard buildings and that no special
various ‘‘comparative advantages’’ versus other pro- construction type is required.
ducts on this market. These advantages have to exist not Being on the market, the various ‘‘comparative
in the eyes of some scientists or technicians but in the advantages’’ could be checked. The main argument on
eyes of the relevant market players like architects and the building market is ‘‘cost’’, and unfortunately this
customers on the building market. generally means ‘‘investment cost’’ and not ‘‘total cost
Unfortunately buildings clearly belong to the so- of ownership’’ or ‘‘life cycle cost’’. But even this hurdle
called ‘‘experience goods’’, i.e. the positive character- was taken by the demonstration projects in Hanno-
istics show only after a considerable period of possession ver–Kronsberg, where Passive Houses were built at costs
and use. Usually it is not possible to try a house before even below those of nearby, conventional terraced
finally moving in. Therefore it is common practice to houses. This example shows that the additional invest-
rely on the experience which is reported by reliable ment costs lie in the range of typical differences in the
sources like friends, un-prejudiced magazines and so on. results of the bidding procedure. The realized low
Therefore to convince these target groups at first there investment cost was helped by small, innovative
has to be a series of real projects that can be experienced manufacturers, who started to produce the required
with all senses and creates a ‘‘pool of experience’’. components in series which leads to cost reduction.
Fortunately, the number of Passive Houses has been Fig. 22 illustrates the economic principle of the
growing continuously in Germany, Austria and Switzer- Passive House: Saving energy leads to increasing
land during the last few years (Fig. 21) and is now investment costs, but reduced energy costs. Saving
sufficiently large. The theoretically predicted advantages 1 kWh of energy becomes more expensive if the energy
turn out to be realistic and this knowledge gradually demand is already low. But if increased efficiency
spreads among the relevant groups. The success story renders a building component (in this case: the heating
starts with the first demonstration project in Darmstadt- system) unnecessary, higher efficiency becomes afford-
Kranichstein in 1991. It can be judged as extremely able. Depending on the conditions of the respective case,
important for the later development that this first building more efficient houses may even be cheaper.
project was very well monitored and results were As soon as the ‘‘investment cost’’ question is solved,
documented in great detail. The goals of the project potential occupants look upon additional benefits that a
were reached not only in terms of energy efficiency: house possibly should have. In most cases, low energy
scientific social research showed a high degree of user consumption is not enough for owner-occupiers or
satisfaction, air quality measurements proved the tenants to move into a Passive House. Such benefits are
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
170 J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171

140 6. Conclusions
Total costs
120 Energy costs CEPHEUS has tested and proven the viability of the
cost reduction: heating system
Capitalized costs [€/m²]

Construction costs Passive House concept at the European level. In

100
Germany, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and France, a
80
total of 221 housing units in 14 building projects have
60 been built to Passive House standards and are now
occupied. The project demonstrated the functional
40 Passive
House w
viability of the Passive House concept at all sites, the
20 compact
building
actual achievement of the space heat savings target,
low energy houses
services practical implementability of Passive Houses in a broad
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 variety of building styles and constructions, project-level
Specific space heat demand [kWh/(m²a)] economic viability and a high degree of satisfaction of
building occupants.
Fig. 22. Typical dependence of total, capitalized costs on the space
The Passive House technology has triggered a fresh
heat demand for a terraced house (Passive House case with compact
building services). burst of innovation in the construction industry. Passive
House components are available from an increasing
number of manufacturers. For example, in October
2003, 39 different Passive House windows were avail-
able. CEPHEUS has made publicly accessible all
e.g. as follows: prestige, wellness, comfort, environmen- experience gained and the key planning tools for the
tal friendliness. Gradually Passive Houses are Passive House concept.
expanding from a niche market that was perceived to The authors see several possibilities on the political
be ‘‘ultra-green’’ or at least lacking added prestige. In side to support the spread of the Passive House
the meantime public opinion changes in a direction principle. On the one hand there are activities helping
which makes it more impressive to boast about a to push Passive Houses into the market, i.e. activities
consumption of 200 litres fuel oil instead of 2000 litres that stimulate e.g. architects and housing companies to
whilst never having heard of cold feet or draughts than think about Passive Houses. Outside the centre of the
to have a floor heating installed to overcome such Passive House development (Germany, Austria, Swit-
problems. zerland), demonstration projects are required in order to
But the future holds other questions where Passive disseminate the know-how about which construction
Houses can provide a better answer. One of the most details are of importance and to overcome the initial
important issues is ‘‘sustainable building’’. In general scepticism of housebuilders and consumers. Research
sustainable building has a social, an ecological and an projects on how to adapt the principle to different
economic component. A social advantage is affordabil- climate conditions and building habits are also required.
ity of comfortable living. While people in ‘‘normal’’ For example, triple glazing is required in Central
houses always have to fear a considerable increase of Europe, but may become unnecessary or even counter-
heating energy prices, because this would cut sharply productive in regions with higher insolation.
their remaining budget, occupants of Passive Houses It is generally not a good idea to subsidize the
nearly remain unaffected by such developments. The additional investment cost of energy saving measures
very low energy consumption also leads to the least life- because the incentive for reducing the cost of the
cycle cost of Passive Houses which is a major economic respective components would be lost. What appears to
argument. In terms of ecology the small remaining be more helpful is the support of additional planning
energy demand clearly more than compensates the efforts or quality assurance. Fixed subsidies for reaching
additional energy input for thicker insulation and better a certain efficiency level might be helpful, too. Further-
windows, i.e. Passive Houses show the best life cycle more, politics could financially support demonstration
balances of all available building standards. This alone and dissemination: guided tours, test living in realized
would not be a suffcient argument for Passive Houses to buildings, production and distribution of information
be an ecologically sustainable option. ‘‘Least consump- material.
tion’’ does not necessarily mean ‘‘little enough’’ for Beside these push factors there are other measures
being sustainable. Swiss calculations of ‘‘allowable that would stimulate a ‘‘market pull’’, i.e. to induce
environmental loads’’ for a dwelling unit provide first potential occupants to ask for Passive Houses. The main
evidence that the building energy standard necessary to barrier on the building market is a lack of transparency,
stay within the allowable limits has to be much better which is valid for several major advantages of Passive
than ‘‘low-energy’’ and may be situated in the range of Houses. Everybody knows that a 1-l car is extraordina-
Passive Houses (Haas et al., 2002). rily energy saving. Although there are more buildings
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Schnieders, A. Hermelink / Energy Policy 34 (2006) 151–171 171

than cars hardly anybody knows the meaning of a 1-l- Acknowledgements

building. A Passive House roughly consumes the
equivalent of 1 litre fuel oil per m2 and year for space The CEPHEUS project was funded by the Directo-
heating. As soon as possible an energy labelling scheme rate General XVII of the European Commission. The
for buildings should be implemented which is compar- participation of the Passive House Institute became
able to what everybody knows from ‘‘white goods’’ possible through additional funding by the Ministry of
products. Realistic calculation procedures for the Environment, Agriculture and Forests of the land of
absolute energy demand are even more important. Hesse. The project ‘‘User Oriented Design of Passive
Depending on the algorithm used, the results of different Houses’’ was funded by the ‘‘Deutsche Bundesstiftung
calculations for the same building may vary consider- Umwelt’’.
ably. This is not merely a question of correct prediction
of consumptions, but of correct comparison of different
energy-saving measures. The European standard EN
832 is a good starting point, but depending on which
References
boundary conditions are used the results may become
misleading. Danner, M., 2001. AbschluXbericht zur sozialwissenschaftlichen
An issue related to labelling is a unified method for Evaluation, Wohnen in der Passivhaussiedlung Lummerlund im
calculating the floor area. In this article the TFA was Neubaugebiet Hannover-Kronsberg, U Konzept Agentur für
mentioned as one possibility. Unfortunately, the calcu- Unmweltkommunikation e.V., Lüneburg.
Feist, W. (Ed.), 1999, Protokollband Nr. 16 des Arbeitskreises
lation quite often is dubious and in these cases always
kostengünstige Passivhäuser ‘‘Wärmebrückenfreies Konstruieren’’.
leads to bigger floor areas what in turn leads to lower Passivhaus Institut, Darmstadt.
specific consumption figures. Feist, W., Schnieders, J., 1999. Wärmebrückenfreies Konstruieren.
Another disadvantage is the practice of talking about CEPHEUS-Projektinformation Nr 6. Passivhaus Institut,
‘‘investment costs’’ or ‘‘cold rent’’ instead of ‘‘total cost Darmstadt.
of ownership’’ or ‘‘warm rent’’. It would be easy to Feist, W., Baffia, E., Schnieders, J., Pfluger, R., Kah, O., 2002.
Passivhaus Projektierungs Paket 2002, Anforderungen an quali-
create a legal framework, where it would be obligatory tätsgeprüfte Passivhäuser, 4. Auflage, Fachinformation PHI-2002/
to deliver a standardized calculation of ‘‘annual total 1, Darmstadt, Passivhaus Institut, January 2002.
cost of ownership’’ or ‘‘warm rent’’ when selling or Gesamt-Emissions-Modell Integrierter Systeme (GEMIS), 2000. Ver-
renting flats or houses. sion 4.0. Öko-Institut, Darmstadt.
In most countries, there will be some minor details in Haas, A., Althaus, H.-J., Zimmermann, M., 2002. ZEN Standard für
ökologisch nachhaltiges Bauen.
legislation that hinder the development. If, for example, Peper, S., 1999. Luftdichte Projektierung von Passivhäusern, CE-
the use of district heat is obligatory in some regions, the PHEUS-Projektinformation Nr. 7. Passivhaus Institut, Darmstadt.
overall cost of energy supply for Passive Houses will Peper, S., Feist, W., Kah, O., 2001. MeXtechnische Untersuchung und
increase significantly because connecting the building to Auswertung; Klimaneutrale Passivhaussiedlung in Hannover-
Kronsberg, Fachinformation PHI-2001/6, CEPHEUS-Projektin-
the district heat is extremely expensive in comparison to
formation Nr. 19. Passivhaus Institut, Darmstadt.
the cost of consumption. Exceptions from such rules for Pfluger, R., Feist, W., 2001a. MeXtechnische Untersuchung und
very efficient buildings should be possible. Auswertung; Kostengünstiger Passivhaus-GeschoXwohnungsbau
Last but not least the project experience showed that in Kassel Marbachshöhe, Fachinformation PHI-2001/2, CE-
even interested occupants could not detect the very low PHEUS-Projektinformation Nr. 15. Passivhaus Institut, Darm-
energy cost on their complicated bills. Thus the evidence stadt.
Pfluger, R., Feist, W., 2001b. Kostengünstiger Passivhaus-GeschoX-
for a major Passive House advantage was hindered by wohnungsbau in Kassel Marbachshöhe, CEPHEUS Projektinfor-
obscure billing. Something like a mandatory ‘‘clearness mation Nr. 16. Passivhaus Institut, Darmstadt.
of billing test’’ could be imagined, which could be Schnieders, J., Feist, W., 1999. Für das Passivhaus geeignete Fenster;
executed by energy agencies. CEPHEUS-Projektinformation Nr. 9. Passivhaus Institut, Darm-
The Passive House is a few steps ahead of the current stadt.
Schnieders, J., Feist, W., Pfluger, R., Kah, O., 2001. CEPHEUS—
building regulations of most countries. Although it is Wissenschaftliche Begleitung und Auswertung, Endbericht. CE-
too early to change the building regulations accordingly, PHEUS-Projektinformation Nr. 22. Passivhaus Institut, Darm-
it might be possible to leave out some steps in between stadt.
the current and the future building standards by von Oesen, M., 2001. Zwei Jahre Passivhaussiedlung Hannover-
Kronsberg. In: erneuerbare energien Kommunikations- und
relatively moderate political support.
Informations GmbH (Edt.): Passiv Haus, 2001. Tagungsband,
The majority of the numerous reports on the Reutlingen.
CEPHEUS project are in German. The English version Weizsäcker, E.U. von, Lovins, A.B., Lovins, L.H., 1997. Faktor vier.
of the final report, on which part of this paper is based, Doppelter Wohlstand—halbierter Naturverbrauch. Droemer
is available as a PDF-file from www.passiv.de/07_eng/ Knaur, München
news/C-Meas_F.htm.