Brilliant Passive Houses (That Will Cost Pennies to Heat)

It is getting cold here in England, and I’m preparing for the yearly tradeoffs between comfort, carbon emissions and heating bills that are part of living in a house with reasonable but not great insulation.

For the 30,000 or so owners of passive houses these compromises are a thing of the past.  They’ve got the comfort, the low emissions and barely a heating bill to speak of.  I’ve looked at the technical reasons about why a passivhaus has a negligible heating bill in the past.  Passivhaus means great insulation, low heat loss and gain, greater efficiency, and less thermal pollution. But I’ve never mentioned how pretty they can be.

Here are 7 stunners from around the world!

Click the link for the image

1: The Hudson Passive Project, Hudson, NY, United States

2: La Maison Bambou, Val d’Oise, France

3: FabLab House, Madrid, Spain

4: Crossways, Kent, United Kingdom

5: Passivhaus (the original), Darmstadt, Germany

6: Villa Nyberg, Borlänge, Sweden

7:  Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios King’s College Student Housing at Cambridge University

One day, when I’ve got the cash, land and time . . . .

Which one floats your boat??

Lindsay Wilson
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I founded Shrink That Footprint in November 2012, after a long period of research. For many years I have calculated, studied and worked with carbon footprints, and Shrink That Footprint is that interest come to life.

I have an Economics degree from UCL, have previously worked as an energy efficiency analyst at BNEF and continue to work as a strategy consultant at Maneas.  I have consulted to numerous clients in energy and finance, as well as the World Economic Forum.

When I’m not crunching carbon footprints you’ll often find me helping my two year old son tend to the tomatoes, salad and peppers growing in our upcycled greenhouse.