Passive house for a bargain. It can be even cheaper than a regular house

Passive House by Penatus

A properly designed and optimized passive house does not have to be significantly more expensive than a non-energetically efficient house, even under normal circumstances. However, with financial support, their prices are comparable. “Two years ago, we conducted a direct comparison of the costs of building an energetically passive house and a regular house. The construction of the passive house was only 10% more expensive while achieving higher quality of the interior environment and, of course, lower energy demands during its operation,” says designer Jan Koloděj from the Smart House company, who is also the author of the first certified passive house in the Czech Republic.

It is therefore no surprise that there is great interest in supporting the construction of new energy-efficient houses from the New Green Savings program. “Our company has successfully registered about forty applications. Roughly half of them were projects for passive houses,” states Jan Antonín from EnergySim, summarizing the balance of the first few days of the program. It is currently possible to receive up to 550,000 CZK for the construction of a new passive house, and for energy-efficient renovations, this can be up to 55% of the costs. Additionally, investors can receive another 35,000 CZK as a contribution for a blower door test, technical supervision, and energy assessment including the project.

Passive House by Josef Smola

However, the high interest also means a greater risk of quickly exhausting the funds, which are significantly limited compared to the first Green Savings program. People who do not secure funding now, or cannot submit their application in time, may have to postpone or completely abandon their new construction and renovation projects. This is not good news for their wallets or for Czech construction, which is trying to emerge from its current crisis.

Nevertheless, the high number of applications should be a signal (not only) for the current government that there is significant interest among people in energy savings. The government, and especially the Minister of the Environment Podivínský, should act in accordance with their previous statements and increase the funds available in the program.

As experiences from Germany show, the money spent in this direction will not only reflect on energy savings for households, but also through the increase in the number of new jobs and support for Czech industry.