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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)

#181

Post by a_square_peg »

arethuza wrote: post #131
Gravityloss wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that work? Average temperature in the UK is about 15 C. If your house is at 24 C, this would mean you are constantly leaking heat into the ground from the bottom... I guess one can consider the cube of earth an insulator, it's got a lousy insulation value per meter but it makes it up in thickness.

Don't think 15C is correct - looks more like 8.5C to 11C in England and 7C to 9C in Scotland. http://projectbritain.com/weather/average.htm

You can look up ground temperature for your location here - https://weatherdownloader.oikolab.com/downloader.

Layer 4 is between 1m to 3m depth beneath the surface.

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

#182

Post by GuB-42 »

vinay427 wrote: post #101
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It saddens me that construction quality is almost irrelevant when building a new building nowadays. Depends on where you live; houses in the Netherlands are built to high standards when it comes to things like insulation, build quality, electrification, etc. Are houses in the US still built with 2x4's and drywall? You'd think they would move to what we have here in the Netherlands, mostly sturdy concrete blocks, in…

> Are houses in the US still built with 2x4's and drywall? You'd think they would move to what we have here in the Netherlands, mostly sturdy concrete blocks Do you mind explaining why you feel this way? There are definitely benefits to reinforced concrete such as durability and resistance to certain natural elements, but as far as I can tell modern fire-treated wood construction tends to be nearly as safe in fires o…

> the consistent dearth of electrical outlets

In France, it was the case in old houses.

On new constructions, a minimum number of outlets is required (3 per bedroom, 5 to 7 in the living room, 4 in the kitchen, 1 in every other room). This is in addition to dedicated circuits (washing machine, oven, dishwasher, heating, lighting...) which may have their own outlets. RJ-45 networking is also required (1 per room) but unfortunately, it is often designed poorly and barely usable except for a phone landline.

These are minimums. And it is typically what you get in standard apartment buildings. But you can have more. I have about double. A friend of mine has an outlet every 50cm!

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

#183

Post by theshrike79 »

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.

Also: It's illegal to build multi-storey housing in large parts of America. You know, the kind where you have stores on the ground floor and apartments above. Illegal and actively NIMBYed against.

A grocery store for a neighbourhood, within walking/biking distance? Illegal, against zoning laws.

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

#184

Post by arethuza »

a_square_peg wrote: post #181
arethuza wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't think 15C is correct - looks more like 8.5C to 11C in England and 7C to 9C in Scotland. http://projectbritain.com/weather/average.htm

You can look up ground temperature for your location here - https://weatherdownloader.oikolab.com/downloader . Layer 4 is between 1m to 3m depth beneath the surface.

Apologies, I didn't appreciate you meant average temperature underground - that is definitely much warmer. We have a ventilation shaft for an old limestone mine near our house and on a cold day the warm air rising from it is very noticeable.

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

#185

Post by londons_explore »

bainsfather wrote: post #136
KaiserPro wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next most effective thing to do is External wall insulation. However that'll mean that you'll loose the whinstone look. (unless you pay a _lot_ to get whinstone like shims put on after) The alternative is to have internal wall insulation: https://www.insulationsuperstore.co.uk/product/vacutherm-vac... This is as effective as ~150mm of rockwool, but only 20mm thick. So this can be stuck behind plaster/plasterboard…

I followed your link, but am confused and/or doubtful: how do you replace 150mm of rockwool with 20mm of anything other than a good vacuum? It says that they are 'very low internal pressure' - but if it contains any kind of gas (which i presume it must do - air if nothing else) then the conductivity does not depend on pressure until the mean-free-path has increased to be > the width of the container. Is this product…

> conductivity does not depend on pressure

I think it might be fumed silica aerogel at about 0.1 bar.

This paper describes the use of the same material for building insulation:

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/a-The-thermal-conductivi...

I suspect the key issue will be maintaining that low pressure for the ~100 year lifespan of the building. Perhaps future versions will come with micro pumps so that once per year the pressure can be pumped back down to 0.1 bar. Looks like for about a dollar you can buy a little 3 volt vacuum pump. One per panel out to do a decent job.

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

#186

Post by throw0101a »

poseva wrote: post #43

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…

> 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.

Here's a 500 sq. m. (5000 sq. ft.) house built with heating equipment that uses 1800W (the equivalent of a hair drier):

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vul4vMFdkA

The same person building his own personal home up to Passive House standards:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBOvflXoWlw

You do not need concrete† and masonry to make homes efficient. Switching from using 2x4s @16" off centre (OC), to 2x6 @24" OC ("advanced framing") would allow for less wood use, less thermal bridging, and more cavity space for insulation.

† It should be noted that concrete creates a lot of CO2 emissions, as does baking bricks. Growing wood on the other hand is a way to sequester carbon.

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

#187

Post by bogle »

lbriner wrote: post #143

I think this is one of those things where people generally agree that better insulation and lower energy costs is a good thing but who pays for it? In the UK, there is a constant demand for "affordable housing", which is caused by governments not controlling the housing market from either foreign investors or also people using the housing bubble to buy up loads of properties over time forcing others to rent. Bearing…

> I think these challenges will get better over time but that is probably why governments aren't keen to make large improvements in energy-efficiency regulations.

This is probably true but it's still backwards. The state should want to improve the affordability of housing and should consult with industry on which measures can be introduced but ultimately the state must introduce the new regulations to help drive the market in the direction of continuous improvements to the housing stock's long-term affordability. I think if they shirk this then they simply aren't doing the job properly.

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

#188

Post by bserge »

poseva wrote: post #43

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#189

Post by olau »

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?

In the house I'm living in, which was built in a transition point between making sure houses don't leak and the realization that you then need active ventilation, I have the problem that the windows are not insulating enough, so I end up with water condense on the inside when it's freezing outside. If you are going to replace the windows, I would definitely buy triple-paned, unless you only have a small temperature difference.
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