This Academic paper by Daniel Coyle, examining the cost effectiveness of the Passive House standard for deep retrofit of existing dwellings, was published in the SDAR Journal of Sustainable Design and Applied Research.

The paper which is a summary of Daniel’s MSc Research Thesis, examines an economic analysis of a Passive House Retrofit Project in Galway City, Ireland, using Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA). This is a deep retrofit of a semi-detached house involving significant capital investment to achieve Passivhaus standard and significant reductions in energy usage; however, the payback is long. The critical impact of discount rate, investment time frame and energy price escalation on cost optimality for deep retrofit projects is highlighted.

Download a copy of the SDAR paper here: https://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=sdar

Download the full MSc Research Thesis here: https://arrow.dit.ie/builtmas/22/