Passivhaus Institut

Study of energy efficiency for Sustainable Housing in Mexico

The Passive House Institute, in cooperation with GIZ (German International Cooperation Agency), GOPA Consultants, IzN-Friedrichsdorf, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, Perspectives and various Mexican institutions, has worked on a NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) document which was presented by the Mexican government at the United Nations Climate Change Conference at Durban in December 2011. Now, the Technical Annex with the summary of the Passive House Institute’s findings has been released. Applying the whole house approach, this study on social housing projects in Mexico used the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) for a comparison of various energy efficiency standards including Passive House in different Mexican climate zones and for different social housing building typologies. The investment costs for a current and future scenario (when Passive House components will be readily available on the Mexican market) were gathered and assessed. In all cases the Passive House case proved to be the most economical option when looking at lifecycle costs.

This figure shows the capital and energy costs now. The Passive House Standard is already the most economic solution with prices from today. This is even clearer when the energy subsidies, paid by the Mexican government, are taken into account.

Download the study here ( pdf 3903 MB)