Socio-economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis of passive houses: A life cycle perspective

Abstract

Passive houses optimize energy gains and losses to attain higher energy efficiencies, comfort levels, and affordability. This article allows attaining a broader understanding of the risks and opportunities of passive technologies and their impacts through a social cost-benefit analysis framework. Time value of money was incorporated to evaluate the net present values (NPV), cost-benefit ratios, and internal rates of return. Five alternative houses consisting of passive and net-zero technologies were compared against a conventional design (traditional model). The base model with renewable energy integrations indicated higher impacts on the cumulative cost-benefits in economic, social, and environmental perspectives. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis evaluated the effects of independent variables such as the interest rate and energy consumption on the performance metrics. This paper allows users to attain a holistic idea of implementing passive dwellings in a selected region through a social cost-benefit point of view.