"So, let's look at the math. Say a conventional single family home that's up to code costs $400,000. A similar passive house would run about $40,000 more."
Tell a builder you want a "passive home" and the price will increase 50% not 10.
Expended when and where energy was cheap, providing its benefit when energy may be expensive. Think of it as a kind of multi-year storage and long distance transmission.
It even has averaging capability over the short term: if the factory that makes the materials is running off solar energy it can run when energy is available. On the other hand a lot of the embodied energy might not be commercial energy in the direct sense: it might be the energy embodied in trees cut for wood or something like that.
Highly insulated houses also allow another kind of short term storage: using the house itself as a thermal battery. The better the insulation, the longer the thermal time constant, and the longer the effective storage time from precooling or preheating the house.
"So, let's look at the math. Say a conventional single family home that's up to code costs $400,000. A similar passive house would run about $40,000 more."
Tell a builder you want a "passive home" and the price will increase 50% not 10.