The economic feasibility of passive houses in Korea

The number of passive houses and zero-energy buildings being developed is increasing, as measures to reduce the rapidly increasing building energy consumption. While government building policies focus on energy savings, investors and the building market emphasize the initial investment cost. These conflicting perspectives obstruct the development of passive houses in the building market. In this study, a series of building energy analyses, including the effect of energy saving measures and economic information considering long-term economic benefit and incentives policy, will be presented. Analyses were performed on the energy-saving measures needed to improve the performance of single-family houses in Korea to that of the passive house standard, as well as the energy saving effect and increased cost. The application of energy saving measures for passive house implementation resulted in an additional cost of 1.85%-4.20% compared to the conventional reference house. In addition, the proposed passive house alternative shows a short payback period and life cycle cost (LCC) result, compared to a conventional building's life cycle period. The possibility of passive house implementation is high, and developing the passive house is affordable for the investor or end user in Korea.