Where is Europe right now? Passive houses in foreign countries. Part 1

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German professionalism

Author: Mónika Vértesy
2013-10-23

We will present you in our weekly updated article series, where are certain European countries standing on the way of acclimatizing passive houses. What kind of qualification systems are in use? Are there any support which can be claimed?

Germany, birthplace of passive houses

If someone knows what a passive house is, then it is safe to assume that he/she also knows that the first building like this was handed over in Darmsadt, Germany in 1991. This building – which will be an „adult” this year – played an important role later due to the monitoring system which helped the German Passive House Institute to develop a passive house planning pack. Nowadays more than ten thousand passive houses are built thanks to this pack. It is true that even Germany – the birthplace of passive houses – is far away from a mandatory qualification system, but the dream of achieving this is not a utopia. It is in operation in some eminent German cities, such as Frankfurt, Leipzig and Kreis Lippe. Taking this in consideration, it does not seem such an achievement to have 6000 passive houses built in the country, mostly supported by kfW loans.

It is not unreachable

The kfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau) is an enormous development bankgroup owned by the state with diverse activity. Right now we are interested in the kfW40 and kfW60 and mainly in the kfW passive house loans, which come with discounted interest rate. It is true that the kfW passive house supports the building or even buying such houses which fulfill the criteria that the primary energy consumption is not more than 40 kWh per square meter and the heating energy demand is not more than the well-known 15 kWh. Since 1999, 1800 passive houses were built with the support of kfW loans. The other two loan types – which carry their criteria heating energy demand in their names – also support the construction of energy-efficient houses equipped with up-to-date heating systems.

hol tart Európa - passzívházak külföldön

Long duration, fixed interest rates

The kfW constructions have a common feature: they are avaiable in a wide range (for private people, for companies and also for institutes) and in certain cases they cover the whole expenditure of the buliding project, up to 50000€ (15 million HUF). These loans are provided with long duration and a fixed interest rate. Oh yes, interest rate! Various factors have an influence on it, such as the duration (10 to 30 years), and the time when the borrower starts redeeming the loan. The bank provides fixed interest rates in the first 10 years, which are varying betwen 3% and 3,44% based on the factors mentioned above. All in all the kfW provides a total which is ten times as big as the total provided by NEP (Hungarian energy-efficiency program) with almost half as big fixed interest rates. This plays a role in the will of the Germans to build passive houses….

Qualification

The qualification is always done by the German Passive House Institute (PHI) based on the certificate by PHPP. This system is politically independent and it is constantly being developped, based on the newest research results. Still, it is not ideal due to its monopolistic situation. Taking this in mind, it is quite understandable that the range of services are widenig constantly, nowadays even certain products (such as windows and heat recovery devices) can get qualifications. It is also planned to extend this system to the representatives of the building industry. Softenig qualification system versus increasing profit at PHI. We have to admit, everything has a price.