Chances and barriers for passive house renovations

Abstract

There is significant potential for carbon reduction and energy saving in residential buildings. Various market actors are looking for ways to increase the uptake of passive house renovation and its certification.
This study aimed specifically to draw lessons from research projects towards the volume uptake of such renovations in the Flemish Region in Belgium. The empirical part of the study focused primarily on structuring currently perceived supply and demand side barriers and opportunities for introducing nearly zeroenergy renovations for single-family houses. As a reflection, the consequences for the market uptake of passive house renovations are discussed.
The demand of homeowners for passive house renovations is still very low and only a limited number of frontrunners has experience supplying such renovations. The top three problems for market uptake of such housing renovation were detected as lack of knowledge, inefficient planning and construction processes and lack of quality assurance. Due to their limited competencies, knowledge or resources small companies do not really have an alternative but to collaborate with other actors.