Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

archipro.co.nz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 335 posts

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#31

Post by yoyopa »

osobo wrote: post #9
SenHeng wrote: post #6

I'm in the middle of building a PassivHaus. The building itself is mostly done and we're working on the interior. There are still a few gaps that haven't been plugged and the heat exchangers have not yet been installed. I'm above 800m elevation, snowstorms every weekend. It's cold here. My house also actually faces West instead of South, so I'm not getting much heat from the sun. This was a surprise to use because th…

I'm looking into making a house sustainable right now and the windows are actually a point of contention. One side thinks super-high insulated (triple pane) windows are a waste of money, the other swears by them. Assuming the frame doesn't leak, does triple really make that much of a difference?

yes, it's like wearing a sweater vs. wearing two sweaters

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#32

Post by locallost »

dt3ft wrote: post #20

I'd love to see them try this in Sweden :)

One well known example of modern efficient houses is the one Amory Lovins built in the Rocky Mountains in the US. It gets quite cold there, yet he likes to point out he grows bananas in the house.

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#33

Post by mattlondon »

I wonder how these "no heating"/"no cooling" homes work in situations like mine: my wife is permanently freezing cold, sitting around inside with multiple layers on, sometimes a blanket, and the heating on full-blast while I am walking around in shorts and t-shirt sweating?

I.e. people have different ideas about what a comfortable temperature is. In my wife's example it seems like unless she can actually "feel the heat" as it were, she is not comfortable.

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#34

Post by Mromson »

LunaSea wrote: post #27
Mromson wrote: post #11

It saddens me that construction quality is almost irrelevant when building a new building nowadays. The profit difference between a well-isolated passive building and one that merely meets the minimal standards, is often very small, so why bother building a passive building? My personal interest in passive buildings generally revolve around maintenance. Passive houses seem to require far less maintenance.

> Passive houses seem to require far less maintenance. Interesting! Could you explain a bit more on how you came to this conclusion?

In general, this conclusion comes from the notion that a passive house has fewer moving parts and requires less attention. A poorly insulated house demands that you take more active measures to ensure that it keeps a positive temperature (so water pipes don't freeze), this is extra pertinent should the power go out. A well-insulated house is also likely to have fewer points of failure (water getting into cracks and whatnot).

A proper passive house generally only has one maintenance point, which is the ventilation / air filtration system, and temperature control is easy. You don't have to worry much about the insides being too hot or too cold, as it should keep whatever temperature you set regardless of the weather outside.

With all that said, you should generally take everything I said with a grain of doubt, as I'm not an expert, and someone could well shoot down all my points in the comments. ;-)

My prime goal with any house I buy is to make sure that I have to do as little as possible; never worry about water being in the wrong place, and never worry about the power bill, or temperature in general.

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#35

Post by dredmorbius »

locallost wrote: post #32
dt3ft wrote: post #20

I'd love to see them try this in Sweden :)

One well known example of modern efficient houses is the one Amory Lovins built in the Rocky Mountains in the US. It gets quite cold there, yet he likes to point out he grows bananas in the house.

Can confirm, I visited RMI in the early 2000s.

The entire structure is built with the climate and site in mind. Large south-facing windows, thermal mass in the floor and walls. At the time, the major energy draw was laserprinters, given that the xerographic process used relies on a heating element kept at about 400F. Switching to inkjet printers was a major energy gain (though ink costs might make this a financial wash).

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#36

Post by dredmorbius »

locallost wrote: post #7

I watched a report on a block of "passive houses" in Germany and the people liked it, but had a complaint that the air is too dry, so they dried their laundry indoors. I'm a fan of the idea, so not really critical, but I wonder what it's really like to live in one.

Indoor plants are also useful in this regard, as the plants (and their containers) will return humidity to the air.

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#37

Post by grey-area »

Terry_Roll wrote: post #18
surfmike wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The passive house standard requires mechnical ventilation using heat exchangers to minimize energy loss. http://tepperarchitects.com/?p=522

Yeah but what is a healthy Air Changes per Hour (ACH)? The building regs here in the UK are a bit all over the place, I had to direct some questions to the local authority planning dept because their legislation was like a poorly written computer program and they couldnt answer the questions. The legislation doesnt quantify the risks properly imo, at least here in the UK.

This article is about passive houses, which have very good ventilation (they have to, because the building is hermetically sealed apart from the HVAC). So the air quality is much better than normal homes without a dedicated ventilation system.

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#38

Post by jakewins »

Terry_Roll wrote: post #18
surfmike wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The passive house standard requires mechnical ventilation using heat exchangers to minimize energy loss. http://tepperarchitects.com/?p=522

Yeah but what is a healthy Air Changes per Hour (ACH)? The building regs here in the UK are a bit all over the place, I had to direct some questions to the local authority planning dept because their legislation was like a poorly written computer program and they couldnt answer the questions. The legislation doesnt quantify the risks properly imo, at least here in the UK.

The houses I’ve seen control the exchange rate with air quality sensors - so, if you are having a party, the ventilation speeds up, and when the house is empty it slows down.

That said, in the US the ACH rate is recommended at 0.35 by ASHRAE, see https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/how-much-ventilat...

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#39

Post by jsiaajdsdaa »

mattlondon wrote: post #33

I wonder how these "no heating"/"no cooling" homes work in situations like mine: my wife is permanently freezing cold, sitting around inside with multiple layers on, sometimes a blanket, and the heating on full-blast while I am walking around in shorts and t-shirt sweating? I.e. people have different ideas about what a comfortable temperature is. In my wife's example it seems like unless she can actually "feel the he…

Sounds like one of you might have a health condition. She could be underweight or anemic, you could be overweight or etc.

Re: How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

#40

Post by jsiaajdsdaa »

mcot2 wrote: post #15

I wish more municipalities would mandate tighter homes with good ventilation. Recently when searching for a new home it was so dishearting to see brand new developments where the homes had standard insulation, bad orientation for things like solar and passive heating and giant fossil fuel based heating systems instead of heat pumps. I decided to instead go the oppostie direction and buy a 1960’s split level that I am…

In America the latest building craze seems to be a veneer of beauty over bad functional design, and a strong mentality of "fuck you pay me" from the seller.
Post reply on HN