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How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

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

#41

Post by spiffistan »

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…

How is the ventilation and air quality? I work in a passive house in and we're experiencing significant issues with the indoor air quality when the building HVAC turns low.

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

#42

Post by LunaSea »

Mromson wrote: post #34
LunaSea wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 w…

Ah I see, that makes sense.

I've always found Passive Haus design interesting although the (expensive) single point of failure that lies in the air pumps scares me a bit.

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

#43

Post by poseva »

I've also built a simple and small (99sqm) PassivHaus in Romania, 5 years ago. Everybody, and I mean everybody from family to friends called me nuts, but I've got my payback this winter when the energy prices went trough the roof and I'm just slightly affected.

The house is elevated from the ground on 12 concrete columns so that I can insulate under the foundation beams using glass foam, insulation on walls is 30 cm of EPS graphite, underfloor 45 cm EPS and on the roof, 50 cm and the orientation is full on south. For heating it consumes about 1500-2000 kWh per year (December, January, February and a maybe a small part of March)

What is the big difference between houses built in North America and Europe is that the European houses are built using concrete and masonry which give them a lot of thermal mass which is crucial to this kind of builds.

Have a look here [0], this is the first PassivHaus in my area and is nicely documented. The cost of building a PassivHaus in my country typically goes about 20-25% more than a traditional one.

[0]: http://www.sdac.ro/site/archives/category/passivehouse

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

#44

Post by guythedudebro »

jsiaajdsdaa wrote: post #39
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.

I think one of them is a woman.

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

#45

Post by poseva »

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?

You must also be careful on how you mount the windows. Have a look at the german standard called "RAL montage" to see that you need an inner and outer membrane and then have a look on where to mount the window inside the wall.. the best solution is to mount it outside the wall in the insulation, the second best solution is to align it at the face of the wall.

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

#46

Post by poseva »

LunaSea wrote: post #42
Mromson wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

Ah I see, that makes sense. I've always found Passive Haus design interesting although the (expensive) single point of failure that lies in the air pumps scares me a bit.

First of all, if you build a PassivHaus in normal climate (not cold) you will be amazed to see that you do not need a heat pump, you can just use normal electric boiler for hot water and use electric underfloor heating mats for heating, or infrared panels mounted on the roof. On the other side, air-to-air heat pumps have gotten cheaper by the year, you can buy a decent heat pump (NIBE) with about 4500-5000 euros.

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

#47

Post by poseva »

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.

Instead of a heat recovery ventilation you can use energy recovery ventilation which gets back some of the humidity, otherwise just buy a cheap electric boiling humidifier and it you get the job done. What is important that in the coldest part of the winter you can turn down the ventilation to a minimal, something like 0.3 hourly exchanges per hour.

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

#48

Post by fy20 »

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?

Windows have a U or R value like insulation, so you can use that to compare.

We are currently building a house and the triple glazed windows we chose have a U value of 0.9. The same manufacturer also makes double glazed windows which have a U value of 1.3.

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

#49

Post by newaccount74 »

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…

You can still control the temperature in a Passivhaus, the difference is just that you need much less energy to heat it.

It won't solve the problem that people prefer different temperatures, though.

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

#50

Post by dhruval »

Reminds me of 'Earthship Houses' that are completely off grid, recycle their waste water to grow crops, are built using repurposed car tires and grow their own food.

There is a community in New Mexico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgUkjbMhF18

And even some in Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAvY5JeMz9w&t=62s

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