Economic convenience of Passivhaus standard in energy retrofits in Mediterranean climate

An economic investigation according to the “LCCA” (life-cycle cost analysis) was carried out by considering the retrofit of a residential building in different climatic zones in the Mediterranean area. A two-stories 4 apartment masonry construction building was ideally located in 10 different locations throughout Italy and consequently energetically refurbished to meet at least the national minimum requirements as well as the Italian “nZEB” (nearly-Zero Energy Building) energy level and comparing investment costs and energy performances with respect to a Passivhaus retrofit in order to achieve the cost-optimality. Passivhaus showed the better economic convenience in all the analysed locations and this constitutes the main finding of this study