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How to build homes with virtually no heating (2020)

archipro.co.nz

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

#51

Post by lostlogin »

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.

The houses in the article have a lot of wood and decking.

New Zealand is savage on exposed timber. I have tried multiple products from expensive to cheap and have the same result on all.

A deck which gets rain and faces north west needs re-coating every 6 months to 1 year. The combination of heat, UV and water is just savage.

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

#52

Post by newaccount74 »

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'm pretty sure that totally healthy people also prefer different temperatures.

And it's common that women prefer it slightly warmer; men do have a slightly higher metabolic rate on average even when they have the same height/weight, and those extra calories that the body uses end up as heat.

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

#53

Post by fy20 »

dt3ft wrote: post #20

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

Come to Lithuania (we have winters of -25C and summers of 35C). All new homes have to be build to a building code that actually exceeds Passive House in some cases. In our apartment (built 2016) we don't even turn on the heating until it gets close to 0c outside.

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

#54

Post by orthoxerox »

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.

Yes, the ventilation system inside a passive house needs not only a heat exchanger, but a humidifier as well. Actually, I'd rather dry my laundry to humidify the room than rely on a humidifier that can grow bacteria and mold inside.

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

#55

Post by gambiting »

jsiaajdsdaa wrote: post #40
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.

What do you mean "latest"? Hasn't it (almost) always been like this?

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

#56

Post by Moru »

dt3ft wrote: post #20

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

First one was built 20 years ago but getting more popular after 2010. You can order them, it's a building standard so does not require anything from you except money. But they say it's not that much more expensive than a normal swedish house since we already have a lot of isolation and 3 glass windows as standard for the climate.

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

#57

Post by mellavora »

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.

Maybe not a health condition, might just be the body's set point.

There are three biological states: body is cold and needs to warm itself, body temp is right (no effort required), body is hot and needs to cool itself.

I was born in hot southern climate, my wife in a cold norther climate. For me, "body is cold" is rather unnatural and uncomfortable. For my wife, "body is hot" is the same. Her internal furnace is always on, my internal cooling system is always on.

She is happiest at 18C ambient, I am happiest at 22C.

If you want a biological mechanism to explain this, it's called epigenetics, and the key factor would be the environment your mother was in while you were in the womb and she was forming your body.

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

#58

Post by uoaei »

jsiaajdsdaa wrote: post #40
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.

Yep, the flippers and the cash-hungry are riding this high as long as they can. It's bred quite a bit of entitlement but with the bonus that their poor attitudes are rewarded with large sums. This will happen (and has been happening) as long as housing is an investment vehicle with profit potential.

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

#59

Post by jsiaajdsdaa »

gambiting wrote: post #55
jsiaajdsdaa wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What do you mean "latest"? Hasn't it (almost) always been like this?

Some houses used to be built on nice plots of land with non-shoe-box design, but I would argue that paying 1.5M for a "new" home depot material house on a postage stamp of land that will literally collapse when the particle board that supports the drywall gets wet... is not very good value for money.

It happens, youtube has the proof of it sadly!

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