Passive house vs low-energy house / photovoltaics

Don’t dig too deep into the individual details just yet. You should maybe talk to a few construction companies beforehand if you roughly know what you want. What kind of disadvantages regarding [Photovoltaik] are supposed to be? Except for someone who absolutely doesn’t like the look. Otherwise, you can hardly build a half-decently planned [Photovoltaik] system in such a way that it isn’t financially worthwhile... Regards Specki

We are now quite sure that we want to build a low-energy house (not a passive house) with an energy consumption of a maximum of 50 kWh/m². The passive house seems a bit too risky and expensive to us.

Good choice. In my opinion, a passive house is something for idealists who have dealt with it accordingly. Great if done well, but problematic if mistakes are made.

The more deeply you dig into the topic, the more questions arise.

Building is very individual, and many matters of taste play a role. Basically, you could start here with simple fundamental questions that you can clarify for yourselves:

[*]Is ecology important to you and are you willing to spend money on it, or should it be purely economical and only things that pay off should be done? [*]How high is your "comfort requirement"? [*]Do you have things that are very important to you (solid construction instead of wood, clinker brick instead of plaster,...)

Once you have set your key points here, you can take a closer look within this defined field. In general, there are many possibilities, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

There is nothing risky about the passive house and it is not generally more expensive than a KFW40 or KFW55 house. At least not in 2016/2017 when we were in the offer phase. The only important thing is that you need a provider who specializes in passive house and KFW40. One who has to bend over backwards because they think they can manage it will be more expensive. We were with two timber frame providers KFW 40 and with one passive house provider solid wood, the QM price was pretty much identical and regarding the interior fittings they were in a similar segment.

A house is an overall concept and it must fit. Usually, you do yourself the greatest favor if you keep your wishes as close as possible to the GU standard. With the GU we built with, he probably would have also built you an energy saving regulation house - just not significantly cheaper than my passive house.

Regarding heating up in summer, you probably have a problem in all new houses if the heat is inside the house. Without shading, nothing works. Our house was surprisingly cool in the last two summers (measured by outside temperature). You will find many discussions on this topic here.

Think about what is important to you.
Do you want to build with a GU or with an architect?
Do you have a plot of land?
What do you definitely want, e.g., wall structure or passive house
Why do you want the wall structure or a passive house
Compliance with the budget of XXX euros

These are very sensible pieces of advice from you, haydee. I am blowing the same horn. No matter what you build, always look for the BU who builds exactly according to the standard, and stick closely to that. Choose large roof overhangs, they provide shade. Be careful with too much south-facing glazing.