Despite Boston's frigid winters, a collection of three homes in the area are managing to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures without turning on the heat. According to Fast Company, the homes, which are built to Passive House standards, maintain a temperature of 72 degrees.
The three passive houses are built on the same block and were designed to be airtight, with heavily insulated walls and triple-paned windows. The homes are also carefully oriented. Building a passive house typically adds around 10% to the cost of a new building. However, utilities, cities, states, and the federal government offer a range of incentives, including rebates for heat pumps and insulation, that can bring down the cost.
New regulations mean that a growing number of multifamily buildings are also being built to passive house standards. In Massachusetts, for example, large apartment buildings now have to meet the requirements, and dozens are under construction. Due to New York City’s strict new energy requirements for large buildings, many developers there are also building to passive house standards. One affordable 709-unit building in Harlem, completed last year, is the largest passive house development in the U.S. Read more
