Passive Solar Windows Cost

In simple terms a passive solar home collects heat as the sun shines through south facing windows and retains it in materials that store heat known as thermal mass.

Passive solar windows cost.

Well designed passive solar homes also provide daylight all year and comfort during the cooling season through carefully designed overhangs and reflective coatings on windows exterior walls and. Passive house window options. That s quite a lot of money but the returns on that extra investment can be astronomical. We offer passive house windows in aluminum upvc wood and clad wood frames including our znc line the first window to be certified by both phius and phi.

Zola has supplied more us passive house projects than any other window manufacturer. When sharp introduced their solar windows back in 2013 they estimated the cost to be around 2 000 per square meter equal to about 11 square feet. 5 factors of passive house cost to consider. The share of the home s heating load that the passive solar design can meet is called the passive solar fraction and depends on the area of glazing and the amount of thermal mass.

Zola has supplied more us passive house projects than any other window manufacturer. You might be thinking wow that seems like a lot of money. The loewen double pane window is a 20 savings 9 600 but it performs less than half as well so it doesn t seem worth the savings. While passive house cost premium estimates from experienced builders vary from 7 15 it is debatable whether this is actually a premium.

By decreasing the windows on the non south sides of the home we can stay balanced in costs and can decrease year round thermal losses while increasing needed solar gain. Research shows that including passive solar options increases the cost of a new build by between 0 and 3. To really dig deep into solar windows costs let s take a look at sharp s offering which we actually have some cost info for. A passive solar home collects heat as the sun shines through south facing windows and retains it in materials that store heat known as thermal mass.

Also the knowledge of passive house detailing within the zola company is worth a lot of that difference. Perhaps a better perspective on passive house cost is to view passive house design as an opportunity for a return on that investment over time. Passive house certified components including windows and heat recovery ventilation systems help builders and designers meet the passive house standard. Certified passive house buildings now account for 2 million square feet of building space in north america representing a threefold increase over 2015 according to a study by the pembina.