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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)

#251

Post by jaclaz »

Retric wrote: post #222
jaclaz wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but not all houses are built for "you" to live in perpetually. You build a house according to the minimal requirements of your local codes/norms. If you next year go to another city you may either sell the house or rent it (at average market value). You build a "passive house". If you next year go to another city you may either sell the house or rent it. Do you believe you can easily get 30% more rent or sale p…

It’s rather pointless to go through the effort of building a house if you don’t expect to live in it for very long. So, the minimum standards should only be relevant to people building homes for sale. As to insulation, it’s very cheap to add some form of solar heating outside of the arctic but cooling always takes energy.

What you expect may be different from what will eventually happen, and since the vast majority of houses are actually built by people that intend to sell them (builders), those make the market price, and - at least now - a passive house valued 30% more than average market is not easy to sell or rent, maybe this will change, maybe not.

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

#252

Post by changoplatanero »

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…

how do you ventilate without losing all the heat?

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

#253

Post by jhgb »

changoplatanero wrote: post #252
k__ wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

how do you ventilate without losing all the heat?

Recuperator ventilation, presumably?

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

#254

Post by pnutjam »

throwaway984393 wrote: post #250
k__ wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I never open my windows unless I'm trying to air out something.

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

#255

Post by CrazyStat »

changoplatanero wrote: post #252
k__ wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

how do you ventilate without losing all the heat?

Heat recovery ventilation [1] can bring in fresh air and output old air while recovering the vast majority of the heat.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation

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

#256

Post by thatguy0900 »

changoplatanero wrote: post #252
k__ wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

how do you ventilate without losing all the heat?

https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/whole-house-ventilation

Energy recovery ventilation systems gives a good description

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

#257

Post by mcot2 »

mdp2021 wrote: post #82
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…

> with good ventilation Mandate windows?! > heat pumps That means (if I understand you correctly), fans. That is noise pollution - some will not have it, and some will not bear it. And (after experience), heat pumps can be inadequate for heating: they can raise a temperature, not warm the environment.

A heat pump can be air source or geothermal and you can use them to create hot water for a hydronic system or forced air (ducted or non-ducted). So not all of those will create the same noise levels. As they can be virtually any size and now work well at very low temps, I don’t see how they can be inadequate for heating. I’d have to hear of an example.

Up in the Northeast U.S. they are still putting oil fired boilers in new homes since gas isn’t super common outside of larger cities. I’d like to see more new homes have solar, heat pumps and possibly even stationary batteries in the future. These are going to be essential if we want to get off fossil fuels.

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

#258

Post by Terry_Roll »

goodpoint wrote: post #211
Terry_Roll wrote: post #4

Its all very well using environmental energy sources to heat and cool a building, but very little attention is given over to clearing the air. Besides the pollutants from cleaning products and product breakdown, CO2 levels inside a building can have a stimulating effect on the body, which kind of destroys the purpose of a relaxation of a home.

> CO2 levels inside a building can have a stimulating effect on the body, which kind of destroys the purpose of a relaxation of a home Citation really needed.

You know where google scholar, pubmed and wiki is? Or do you want to get into a discussion about under-carboxylation and dietary intake of nutrients, and CO2 blood saturation levels?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercapnia#Tolerance

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

#259

Post by blackearl »

dahfizz wrote: post #246

> 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.

Living in a true hot n cold New England USA makes me jealous that anyone would consider this extreme. It's sweater n t-shirt weather. I consider hot n cold being 100F in the summer and 0F in the winter.

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

#260

Post by Terry_Roll »

jakewins wrote: post #38
Terry_Roll wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Yeah but its not measuring the quality of the air. Houses are just passive particulate collecting devices, ie particulates travelling on the air outside, move into the house, meet a stationary or slower moving body of air, lose momentum and velocity and thus succumbs to the effects of gravity and hits a surface.

Considering woman have traditionally been the one's cleaning the house for the living abode for hundreds of years, why havent they come up with something better to filter the air inside a property seeing as there is this push to get females into STEM?

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