I just read about Passive House, thanks for citing it. The standard requires less 15kWh/m^2 per year. I live in the U.S. in a 1200 sq ft apartment, small for U.

I just read about Passive House, thanks for citing it. The standard requires less 15kWh/m^2 per year. I live in the U.S. in a 1200 sq ft apartment, small for U.S. standards, and that comes to ~4.5kwH per day. To put that in perspective, an 80 Watt computer running all day uses up nearly half of that margin. A small 6000 BTU A/C (good enough for a small bedroom) uses up the entire allowance if you run it for 8 hours in your bedroom while sleeping. An electric dryer will use up the entire allowance if you do two loads of clothing. I love that people are thinking about this, and I truly hope that it becomes standard, but it's not exactly reasonable for folks to expect such a level of efficiency without paying through the nose.