Love, loss and drama. Tantrums, tears and success — you’d be forgiven for thinking Tylah Ingram and Dylan Farquhar’s home renovation was part of a TV drama script. 

While many might’ve looked at their rundown, weatherboard-clad house — complete with leaky roof — as a knockdown rebuild, Tylah and Dylan had other plans.

Using the bones of their 1950s East Melbourne cottage and Dylan’s skills as a builder, their goal was to turn it into a modern passive home.

The pair became inspired after staying in a passive house, and Dylan became so interested he set out to make building them his craft.

“It was just a real eye-opener to say that everything I’d been taught, I’d have to throw out and start again,” he told ABC TV’s Grand Designs Transformations.

To work effectively, passive houses need to be comprehensively insulated and sealed and have windows that are, as a minimum, double-glazed.

The result is an incredibly energy-efficient house with stable internal temperatures and small or non-existent energy bills.

They can also include a mechanical ventilation system to bring fresh air into the house, reduce humidity and filter out dust and other allergens.

“This is the only way we should be building houses,” Dylan said.

“Anything else is going to be at risk of mould and condensation and poor health, potentially, to the occupants.”

A tight budget and timeline

While it might be better for your health and hip pocket in the long term, building a passive house can be considerably more expensive than a normal house thanks to the specific materials needed and the extra time it takes.