In a major boost to the Passive House movement, leading Australian developer Frasers Property will build a Passive House at their Life, Point Cook community and test its economic and comfort benefits for the mass market.
The Passive House is a sustainable building standard already well-established in Europe with design highlights such as double-glazed windows, continuous thermal insulation and airtight measures to reduce air leakage, better regulate temperature control in the house and drastically lower heating and cooling costs, while improving air quality.
Frasers Property’s Passive House will be put on sale with the purchaser required to take part in a 12-month trial with the company.
Describing the project as a first for the volume home market in Australia, Rory Martin, sustainability manager - residential, Frasers Property Australia explains that a Passive House delivers several benefits including a reduction in a home’s heating and cooling needs by up to 90 per cent as well as improved health and wellbeing of the occupants.
According to Martin, they want major builders to get behind the movement and also people to have these options when they are building their new home.
Martin days he hopes that over time, higher demand will reduce the added costs of building a Passive House for consumers. Frasers Property’s design team is working with Certified Passive House designer Clare Parry for guidance and to ensure the house meets strict Passive House principles and criteria.
Observing that there are only about 30 Certified Passive Houses in Australia at the moment, Parry says that there has been an incredible amount of awareness raised about Passive House buildings. She noted that current interest in the Passive House standard seemed to be driven by health and wellbeing considerations, though a Passive House also substantially reduced energy consumption and costs.
Frasers Property will begin construction of their Passive House at Life, Point Cook early in 2019 with the year-long trial to begin by the start of 2020.
