IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v60y2013icp586-593.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Passive House at the crossroads: The past and the present of a voluntary standard that managed to bridge the energy efficiency gap

Author

Listed:
  • Müller, Liana
  • Berker, Thomas

Abstract

Improving energy efficiency in dwellings is generally seen as the low-hanging fruit of climate change mitigation. In particular decreased heat loss through better insulation is suggested as one of the most cost-effective means to achieve the ambitious national and international goals of climate gas reduction. However, the literature shows that a profitable technological solution is not sufficient to reach the energy goals. Aspects such as a lack of information, unobserved costs, and heterogeneity among users can compromise the success of technical innovation. Still, there are successful concepts that drive the technological development in the construction sector. The Passive House is an example for such innovations that manage to bridge the energy efficiency gap. This paper addresses the Passive House concept and standard as a success story of technological innovation. With Bruno Latour's Science in Action (1987) as a starting point, we describe the conditions under which the standard was created, the role of the network built around the Passive House Institute, and the consequences of exporting the standard. We identify success factors that have supported the diffusion of the Passive House standard and concept and discuss its possible development in the current situation which is characterized by its wide-spread adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Müller, Liana & Berker, Thomas, 2013. "Passive House at the crossroads: The past and the present of a voluntary standard that managed to bridge the energy efficiency gap," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 586-593.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:60:y:2013:i:c:p:586-593
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.057
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513003935
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.057?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weber, Lukas, 1997. "Some reflections on barriers to the efficient use of energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(10), pages 833-835, August.
    2. Jaffe, Adam B. & Stavins, Robert N., 1994. "The energy paradox and the diffusion of conservation technology," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 91-122, May.
    3. Aune, Margrethe, 2007. "Energy comes home," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5457-5465, November.
    4. Mlecnik, Erwin & Visscher, Henk & van Hal, Anke, 2010. "Barriers and opportunities for labels for highly energy-efficient houses," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4592-4603, August.
    5. Phillips, Yvonne, 2012. "Landlords versus tenants: Information asymmetry and mismatched preferences for home energy efficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 112-121.
    6. Shove, Elizabeth, 1998. "Gaps, barriers and conceptual chasms: theories of technology transfer and energy in buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(15), pages 1105-1112, December.
    7. Daan van Soest & Erwin Bulte, 2001. "Does the Energy-Efficiency Paradox Exist? Technological Progress and Uncertainty," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 18(1), pages 101-112, January.
    8. Wilk, Richard R. & Wilhite, Harold L., 1985. "Why don't people weatherize their homes? An ethnographic solution," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 621-629.
    9. Chai, Kah-Hin & Yeo, Catrina, 2012. "Overcoming energy efficiency barriers through systems approach—A conceptual framework," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 460-472.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olsthoorn, Mark & Schleich, Joachim & Faure, Corinne, 2019. "Exploring the diffusion of low-energy houses: An empirical study in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1382-1393.
    2. Nayara R. M. Sakiyama & Joyce C. Carlo & Leonardo Mazzaferro & Harald Garrecht, 2021. "Building Optimization through a Parametric Design Platform: Using Sensitivity Analysis to Improve a Radial-Based Algorithm Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-25, May.
    3. Henshaw, Victoria & Guy, Simon, 2015. "Embodied thermal environments: an examination of older-people's sensory experiences in a variety of residential types," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 233-240.
    4. António Figueiredo & Filipe Rebelo & Rui Alexandre Castanho & Rui Oliveira & Sérgio Lousada & Romeu Vicente & Victor M. Ferreira, 2020. "Implementation and Challenges of the Passive House Concept in Portugal: Lessons Learnt from Successful Experience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Hawks, M.A. & Cho, S., 2024. "Review and analysis of current solutions and trends for zero energy building (ZEB) thermal systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    6. Ray Galvin, 2024. "How Not to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Unbalanced Focus on Energy Efficiency in Germany’s Building Rehabilitation Policies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Diaz de Garayo, S. & Martínez, A. & Astrain, D., 2022. "Optimal combination of an air-to-air thermoelectric heat pump with a heat recovery system to HVAC a passive house dwelling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Häckel, Björn & Pfosser, Stefan & Tränkler, Timm, 2017. "Explaining the energy efficiency gap - Expected Utility Theory versus Cumulative Prospect Theory," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 414-426.
    2. Bhatt, Brijesh & Singh, Anoop, 2020. "Stakeholders’ role in distribution loss reduction technology adoption in the Indian electricity sector: An actor-oriented approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Bhatt, Brijesh & Singh, Anoop, 2021. "Power sector reforms and technology adoption in the Indian electricity distribution sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(PA).
    4. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    5. Apriani Soepardi & Pratikto Pratikto & Purnomo Budi Santoso & Ishardita Pambudi Tama & Patrik Thollander, 2018. "Linking of Barriers to Energy Efficiency Improvement in Indonesia’s Steel Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, January.
    6. Leurent, Martin & Jasserand, Frédéric & Locatelli, Giorgio & Palm, Jenny & Rämä, Miika & Trianni, Andrea, 2017. "Driving forces and obstacles to nuclear cogeneration in Europe: Lessons learnt from Finland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 138-150.
    7. Bossink, Bart A.G., 2017. "Demonstrating sustainable energy: A review based model of sustainable energy demonstration projects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1349-1362.
    8. Pedro Linares & Xavier Labandeira, 2010. "Energy Efficiency: Economics And Policy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 573-592, July.
    9. Charlier, Dorothée, 2015. "Energy efficiency investments in the context of split incentives among French households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 465-479.
    10. Risch, Anna, 2020. "Are environmental fiscal incentives effective in inducing energy-saving renovations? An econometric evaluation of the French energy tax credit," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    11. Annunziata, Eleonora & Frey, Marco & Rizzi, Francesco, 2013. "Towards nearly zero-energy buildings: The state-of-art of national regulations in Europe," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 125-133.
    12. Paramonova, Svetlana & Nehler, Therese & Thollander, Patrik, 2021. "Technological change or process innovation – An empirical study of implemented energy efficiency measures from a Swedish industrial voluntary agreements program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    13. Kangas, Hanna-Liisa & Lazarevic, David & Kivimaa, Paula, 2018. "Technical skills, disinterest and non-functional regulation: Barriers to building energy efficiency in Finland viewed by energy service companies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 63-76.
    14. Bilous Liliia, 2020. "Determination of energy efficiency barriers taxonomy in socio-economic model of Ukraine," Technology audit and production reserves, Socionet;Technology audit and production reserves, vol. 3(4(53)), pages 14-21.
    15. Franke, Melanie & Nadler, Claudia, 2019. "Energy efficiency in the German residential housing market: Its influence on tenants and owners," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 879-890.
    16. Sommerfeldt, Nelson & Lemoine, Ida & Madani, Hatef, 2022. "Hide and seek: The supply and demand of information for household solar photovoltaic investment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    17. Fleiter, Tobias & Worrell, Ernst & Eichhammer, Wolfgang, 2011. "Barriers to energy efficiency in industrial bottom-up energy demand models--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 3099-3111, August.
    18. Liu, Xianbing & Niu, Dongjie & Bao, Cunkuan & Suk, Sunhee & Sudo, Kinichi, 2013. "Affordability of energy cost increases for companies due to market-based climate policies: A survey in Taicang, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1464-1476.
    19. Vanegas López, Juan Gabriel & Botero Botero, Sergio, 2012. "Eficiencia energética en microempresas de Medellín: un estudio de valoración de barreras," Revista Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, October.
    20. Trotta, Gianluca, 2018. "Factors affecting energy-saving behaviours and energy efficiency investments in British households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 529-539.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:60:y:2013:i:c:p:586-593. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.