Passive House energy Costs

The cost of energy keeps rising.

Added to that is the uncertainty of fuels such as oil and gas.

The recent events in the middle east confirms many views that to protect yourself against sky high energy costs the best way is to conserve the energy you use and to minimise your costs by eliminating or reducing your energy needs.The best way is to build passive.

The form below shows the m2 cost per year of houses throughout the BER (building energy ratings) range.

The chart below is based on a €0.15kwh.

The above energy costs refer to space heating and water heating requirements only.

Additional energy for appliances such as TV and white goods are not included.

Looking at the chart the the A1 house has a yearly energy cost of €3.75m2/year and at the other end of the scale the G house has a €67.50m2/year.

Now the A1 house figure is somewhat unrealistic as to achieve the €3.75m2 per year it would need to augment the energy with re newables.

A more realistic average house is the B3 to C3 range as they fall into the Irish building regulations of 2003-2005.

The UK SAP regulations are similar to the Irish regulations and the energy costs can be converted to Sterling.

Looking at the B3 average yearly cost per m2 it comes in at €18.75m2/year.

The KWh cost used is €0.15kwh

The C3 comes in at €26.25m2/year

Most houses built between 2002 to 2007 fall into this range.

Now an average 3 bed semi detached house has a floor area of 1200ft2 or about 111m2.

If you apply the yearly costs of energy to the B3 and C3 houses respectively the costs are