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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)

#241

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

jmrm wrote: post #171
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…

People doesn't give the massive importance the isolation has. Some years ago we remodelled our home and added XPS (Extruded Polystyrene) to insulate the roof of the house. After that we use the AC only three or four days in the year, and before that we had to use it at least a complete summer month. That house is in the south-interior of Spain, so heat is no joke here. If somebody are constructing or remodelling any…

Insulation is so, so important. I work out of my garage currently and Texas winters get reasonably chilly and of course summers are hot. I'm lucky enough that my garage is actually under a room in my house such that it's insulated (as you imply, roof insulation is one of the most important places to insulate). Even simply adding padded insulation and trim to the exterior door and garage door made it viable enough to stay cool in the summer with zero extra cooling and warm in the winter with a small infrared heater.

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

#242

Post by fullstop »

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.

Not OP, but my wife and I are both quite thin and have no health issues. She is always colder than I am.

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

#243

Post by swader999 »

tejohnso wrote: post #203
poseva wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really interesting. I've read about also "foundation insulation skirt" that allows you to create a warmer earth mass under the house. To be honest this was the biggest "complaint" that others had in regards of how a built the house, the general knowledge says that the earth is warm and you don't need to insulate against it... but the earth is maybe 5-10 degree, of course warmer than outside -5..-10 but still a lot co…

Insulation under the home, and skirted around it. You may be thinking of a Frost Protected Shallow Foundation[1]. A nice alternative to excavating in order to get below the frost line. I dream of doing this as part of a self built small passive house project. [1]: https://www.greenbuildingsolutions.org/blog/frost-protected-...

ICF construction where the foundation form is Styrofoam Lego like blocks that concrete is poured into achieves this shallow and in full basement hooded. A lot more homes in Canada use this approach now.

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

#244

Post by swader999 »

leobg wrote: post #73
kitd wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is interesting that you insulate under the house. One of the more intriguing passive house designs I saw was one where the insulation went down 2-3m into the ground all around the house footprint. This trapped the natural ground heat within that area and fed it upwards into the house. It took about 18 months for the ground to warm up, but once it was there, the ground/house warmed itself with virtually no input. T…

Exactly. Talking about thermal mass! There’s also the movement of underground houses. They use the ground for cooling in summer and for insulation in winter. Also it apparently makes for great noise reduction, in spite of having lots of windows, light and views. See the book “Recovering America: A More Gentle Way to Build”.

Underground houses can be a nightmare dealing with water infiltration, codes and the power of soil.

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

#245

Post by k__ »

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…

A friend of mine, who is an architect, told me the technology is ripe to build houses that produce even more energy than they consume, but people simply don't want to live in them.

The article talks about "using the best windows", the problem my friend saw in many of such houses was simply that the dwellers would either open the windows too often, losing all the heat, or feel miserable because they weren't allowed to open the windows. A pure psychological effect of course, even with the best ventilation people still had the urge to open a window and felt bad if they couldn't.

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

#246

Post by dahfizz »

> Even in places known for their extreme weather conditions – such as ‘hot ‘n’ cold’ Otago, wind-prone Wellington and sweaty Auckland – high-performance homes will stay comfortable and fresh all the year round.

All these places stay above 45F and below 80F. This is anything but extreme weather. You don't need any sort of special "high performance" house for this kind of temperate climate.

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

#247

Post by alksjdalkj »

kitd wrote: post #64
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…

It is interesting that you insulate under the house. One of the more intriguing passive house designs I saw was one where the insulation went down 2-3m into the ground all around the house footprint. This trapped the natural ground heat within that area and fed it upwards into the house. It took about 18 months for the ground to warm up, but once it was there, the ground/house warmed itself with virtually no input. T…

> It is interesting that you insulate under the house.

I think anyone who's gone camping will appreciate the need for insulation between the ground and whatever you're trying to keep warm - a good sleeping pad is crucial for keeping warm.

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

#248

Post by hansvm »

jwr wrote: post #109

While this is at the extreme end of the spectrum, there is a much easier way to save lots of energy: just build modern well-insulated homes. I lived in California and I was appalled at the monstrous energy waste: houses are generally made pretty much from cardboard. You need to cool them in summertime and heat them in wintertime, and the energy expenditure is enormous. I now live in Poland and have recently built sma…

Echoing the sentiment, it cost significantly more for me to heat a studio to 65F in CA than to get a 2/1 up to 72F in ND (or rather, to maintain those temperatures).

Both units had electric baseboard heat and were top floor apartments, but the CA unit didn't have double pane windows, had enormous gaps at the doors and windows, and for all intents and purposes didn't have any insulation. If it was warmer than 0F or so outside the ND unit would have more than enough heat just from cooking. If it was colder than 50F or so the CA unit needed the heaters to actually be on.

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

#249

Post by beerandt »

maxerickson wrote: post #180
jaclaz wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand fully your way of reasoning. A normal house costs - say - 200,000 "units" (dollars, euro, whatever). Making it "energy saving" costs an additional 60,000 units. In 20 years time you will be spending 60,000 units (3,000 per year) less for energy costs (and here we are assuming that ventilation and heating/cooling machines in the "better" house have the same maintenance costs than the ones in "normal…

If you step back a bit, it makes sense for society to push for the construction techniques that minimize the lifetime cost of the building. Here, buildings typically last for much longer than 20 years. And then there's the whole thing where energy costs may not be fully priced into the use.

>construction techniques that minimize the lifetime cost of the building. Here, buildings typically last for much longer than 20 years. And then there's the whole thing where energy costs may not be fully priced into the use.

It goes both ways. Investing in capex has to be balanced against potential capex and opex market changes, not just today's market.

Unless that 0% rate gets passed onto you, there's a fairly rigid payback wall at 30 yrs where no amount of investment is going to make financial sense. (It's why despite loan terms growing for everything else, mortgages are still capped at 30 yrs.

What happens when the market is flooded with cheap renewable electricity, as is promised? Suddenly your payback period is extended beyond what makes sense.

Or advances in technology result in a cheaper, better insulation material?

And then there's the potential external costs of not just energy, but material and construction. It wasn't that long ago that asbestos singles covered nearly every new house because of its fire resistance and insulating properties.

The cost there also seemed to pay for itself, until we discovered the true cost of asbestos mitigation and removal.

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

#250

Post by throwaway984393 »

k__ wrote: post #245
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…

A friend of mine, who is an architect, told me the technology is ripe to build houses that produce even more energy than they consume, but people simply don't want to live in them. The article talks about "using the best windows", the problem my friend saw in many of such houses was simply that the dwellers would either open the windows too often, losing all the heat, or feel miserable because they weren't allowed to…

I recently lived in a house with no external ventilation in one big room. Huuuge windows looking out onto a huge backyard full of trees and flowers. Yeah I missed being able to open the window and hear the birds. But then when lawnmowers started buzzing and dogs started barking, and later when winter hit, I was quite glad for the peace and quiet and no need to open them!
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