How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

A normal house costs - say - 200,000 "units" (dollars, euro, whatever).

Making it "energy saving" costs an additional 60,000 units.

In 20 years time you will be spending 60,000 units (3,000 per year) less for energy costs (and here we are assuming that ventilation and heating/cooling machines in the "better" house have the same maintenance costs than the ones in "normal" house, whilst usually, since they are more complex systems they tend to be more expensive).

You essentially have a "break even" point 20 years in the future, from there onwards you start saving money.

First thing, you need, now, 260,000 units instead of 200,000 (and not all people may be able to afford this).

Then, if, for whatever reasons, you don't use the house at all times in these 20 years, or you need to sell it before that time you are unlikely to fully get the savings.

Additionally, in less than 20 years time it is possible that someone comes out with a mega-para-hyper-ultra climatization device that makes yearly energy costs go down by (say) 90%.

So, if you want to do the "right thing" from a climate/energy savings point of view, by any means choose to invest in a passive house, but it remains essentially a "philosophical" decision, not an economical one.

In the UK, there is a constant demand for "affordable housing", which is caused by governments not controlling the housing market from either foreign investors or also people using the housing bubble to buy up loads of properties over time forcing others to rent.

Bearing in mind how much profit a lot of home builders make, increasing the regulations is likely to add at least £20K to a basic house, significantly more if you include mechanical ventilation, triple-glazed windows and heat pumps (perhaps +£50K), which is some cases will be 50%+ of the original cost!

Another major problem is the quality of building in the UK, mainly driven by a lack of tradespeople, and simply not having the skills to install to the quality levels required by thermally efficient houses like installing a membrane with zero holes in it, using the correct tapes, designing, installing and maintaining heat pumpes and various other things.

I think these challenges will get better over time but that is probably why governments aren't keen to make large improvements in energy-efficiency regulations.

The external wall un old French house can easily reach 55/60cm of pure concrete mixed with stones in cold places.

Trust me, it will break you and specially break your will to make any hole in them ^^

Yes, but I feel like even "back then" that was an exception rather than the norm. There is a LOT of very poorly built houses around, and it's not just the problem with modern construction. Modern house prices and scarcity has made it worse, sure, but it feels like "built to the cheapest possible standard" was always a thing.

In my 1970's house we have 150mm insulation under the house from the original build, 150mm in the walls and 200mm on the roof.

We added another part to the house a few years ago, and that was 300mm insulation in floor/walls/roof. Since the walls are made of brick with a depth of 7cm, it means the walls are 7+7+30= 44cm thick (plus some "slack")

Even my 1980's summerhouse has 100mm insulation in floor/walls/roof.