Cecilia Tärnås

A Market Survey of Passive Houses in the Western Region of Sweden: Why Are They Still Considered As Innovations? Cecilia Tärnås

By mapping the market for Passive houses in Sweden, major obstacles and incentives to further implementation of Passive houses have been identified. The major driving force for making Passive houses mainstream are discovered to be the governmental pressure through laws and regulations. The most important obstacles to production, kept by the construction actors, are found in this study to be the lack of customer demand and knowledge among both customers and construction companies. So, why are Passive houses still considered as an innovation? The study shows that several respondents feel uncertain against Passive houses and want to test to build the concept themselves before believing in the concept. The lack of customer demand from buyers due to lack of knowledge and fear of making large investment costs were the major findings in this study. In order to spread the concept more widely, knowledge in all stages, from project client to Passive house buyer, are an important issue which can be implemented by effective promoting and education.