ᐅ What features did you include in your house, and what did you decide to leave out?
Created on: 30 Jan 2015 14:18
W
willWohnen
Hello,
When planning and building a house, you focus on the essentials and the budget. Some wishes get dropped along the way. But certain small luxuries or nice features are important to you, even if they are not strictly necessary, and you end up including them anyway.
For us, a heated conservatory was an unattainable dream. However, we treated ourselves to tiled, walk-in showers, even though they take up more space.
I would love to hear what you have given up and what you managed to include.
Best regards
When planning and building a house, you focus on the essentials and the budget. Some wishes get dropped along the way. But certain small luxuries or nice features are important to you, even if they are not strictly necessary, and you end up including them anyway.
For us, a heated conservatory was an unattainable dream. However, we treated ourselves to tiled, walk-in showers, even though they take up more space.
I would love to hear what you have given up and what you managed to include.
Best regards
@Arifas: I have something like this, and it fits perfectly under "things I treated myself to."
It only makes limited sense financially, as you’ll never realistically get your investment back. We did it this way because:
- My wife and I wanted a fireplace
- I like the concept
- Only an air-to-water heat pump was possible here, and the model offered by the general contractor (GC) was the only one suitable for a household of 3-4 people. We are 5 people with 3 girls, so hot water is an issue
- Firewood costs us almost nothing here in the village
Now, the technical details: We have a fixed fireplace boiler installed by the stove builder in a 60sqm (645 sq ft) room with an open staircase leading to the upper floor. The boiler has roughly twice the heating capacity the house needs, but it only releases 10-20% of the heat into the room. Normal stoves with water jackets are either too small to efficiently produce hot water or overheat the room in today’s low-energy houses.
The effort for large buffer tanks, hydraulically separated systems, controls, piping, and planning exceeds the financial benefits of such a system unless you heat exclusively with it. Since we run this in parallel with the heat pump, the effort was enormous.
We have the luxury version of the control system: Brunner BHZ 3.0 with buffer tank, which alone cost nearly $10,000. The fixed fireplace boiler was about $10,000 without extras like a wood storage or bench. The heat pump cost $7,000. All prices include taxes and installation. Planning, coordination of trades, and electrical installation were done by ourselves and were very time-consuming since nobody offers this combination as a turnkey solution here. We were lucky the GC cooperated and gave me free reign over the trades.
Would I do it again? I don’t know. The atmosphere, the cozy feeling at the fireplace, and the satisfaction of my “play instinct” (I can measure the entire system via heat meters and remotely control it through the home network) are definitely a gain for me. My wife enjoys the wood fire and that we’re not dependent on a single energy source. The goal is to run the entire system on solar power in one or two years. The photovoltaic system is not installed on the roof yet.
My advice: If you’re not an installer or can’t find one who provides everything from a single source, don’t do it. Many stove dealers here would have gladly sold us everything—including a sauna-like living room effect.
It only makes limited sense financially, as you’ll never realistically get your investment back. We did it this way because:
- My wife and I wanted a fireplace
- I like the concept
- Only an air-to-water heat pump was possible here, and the model offered by the general contractor (GC) was the only one suitable for a household of 3-4 people. We are 5 people with 3 girls, so hot water is an issue
- Firewood costs us almost nothing here in the village
Now, the technical details: We have a fixed fireplace boiler installed by the stove builder in a 60sqm (645 sq ft) room with an open staircase leading to the upper floor. The boiler has roughly twice the heating capacity the house needs, but it only releases 10-20% of the heat into the room. Normal stoves with water jackets are either too small to efficiently produce hot water or overheat the room in today’s low-energy houses.
The effort for large buffer tanks, hydraulically separated systems, controls, piping, and planning exceeds the financial benefits of such a system unless you heat exclusively with it. Since we run this in parallel with the heat pump, the effort was enormous.
We have the luxury version of the control system: Brunner BHZ 3.0 with buffer tank, which alone cost nearly $10,000. The fixed fireplace boiler was about $10,000 without extras like a wood storage or bench. The heat pump cost $7,000. All prices include taxes and installation. Planning, coordination of trades, and electrical installation were done by ourselves and were very time-consuming since nobody offers this combination as a turnkey solution here. We were lucky the GC cooperated and gave me free reign over the trades.
Would I do it again? I don’t know. The atmosphere, the cozy feeling at the fireplace, and the satisfaction of my “play instinct” (I can measure the entire system via heat meters and remotely control it through the home network) are definitely a gain for me. My wife enjoys the wood fire and that we’re not dependent on a single energy source. The goal is to run the entire system on solar power in one or two years. The photovoltaic system is not installed on the roof yet.
My advice: If you’re not an installer or can’t find one who provides everything from a single source, don’t do it. Many stove dealers here would have gladly sold us everything—including a sauna-like living room effect.
Hmm, that doesn’t sound very encouraging [emoji85] [emoji28].
So, my husband would like to have another heat source alongside the gas heating with solar, so we’re not so dependent on gas. We can get wood cheaply from a friend. We want a fireplace anyway, for the look. There are seven of us who like it warm [emoji28].
Would you take the risk in our situation, or would you rather build a regular fireplace without a water heating function?
The consultation at the specialist retailer today wasn’t very informative, unfortunately...
Edit: The fireplace dealer also offers heating systems and solar. Would it be better to get everything from them then?
So, my husband would like to have another heat source alongside the gas heating with solar, so we’re not so dependent on gas. We can get wood cheaply from a friend. We want a fireplace anyway, for the look. There are seven of us who like it warm [emoji28].
Would you take the risk in our situation, or would you rather build a regular fireplace without a water heating function?
The consultation at the specialist retailer today wasn’t very informative, unfortunately...
Edit: The fireplace dealer also offers heating systems and solar. Would it be better to get everything from them then?
If you are already installing solar thermal for domestic hot water, you can also consider a hydronic fireplace. You will need a buffer tank or a large hot water storage tank anyway.
Using a gas boiler is not too contradictory, as it can also produce high temperatures efficiently without significant losses.
I would probably set it up like this:
Both the fireplace and the solar system feed into the buffer tank. Domestic hot water is supplied via a fresh water station.
If there is underfloor heating, it should definitely be supplied from the buffer tank as well, using a mixing valve.
The gas boiler then essentially serves as a backup and can either feed the heating system directly via a valve or charge the buffer for hot water.
However, this setup is not straightforward for an average installer and requires a lot of specialized knowledge, especially concerning the control system.
Using a gas boiler is not too contradictory, as it can also produce high temperatures efficiently without significant losses.
I would probably set it up like this:
Both the fireplace and the solar system feed into the buffer tank. Domestic hot water is supplied via a fresh water station.
If there is underfloor heating, it should definitely be supplied from the buffer tank as well, using a mixing valve.
The gas boiler then essentially serves as a backup and can either feed the heating system directly via a valve or charge the buffer for hot water.
However, this setup is not straightforward for an average installer and requires a lot of specialized knowledge, especially concerning the control system.
S
Steffen8023 Jul 2017 09:50In 2 months, we hopefully will be moving in. Construction time: almost 13 months.
Indulged in:
- A+ location
- Over 280sqm (over 3000 sq ft) of living space
- Great architect and a perfect floor plan for us
- Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery
- Fireplace (€12,000)
- KNX/DALI system etc. (around €50,000 extra)
- Air conditioning in 3 rooms (around €10,000)
- Lots of smart home “gadgets”
- 3m (10 ft) screen integrated into the ceiling (around €7,000) + ceiling-mounted projector (€10,000) + 7.2.4 surround system by Nubert (around €8,000)
- “Hobby” garage: heated, insulated, 2 skylights, water and sewage connections, 65-inch TV + couch
- Large gallery with window from the children’s bathroom
- Large master bathroom with rounded Villeroy & Boch bathtub including LED features, rain shower, etc., overall about €40,000 in sanitary materials throughout the house
- 1000-liter (264 gallons) buffer tank + 15sqm (160 sq ft) solar panels with two heating circuits (low & high temperature)
- Expensive kitchen (including Gaggenau appliances and wine fridge), about €45,000
- 30sqm (320 sq ft) Accoya terrace (around €12,000)
- Complete exterior landscaping finished by move-in (around €100,000)
Foregone:
- Basement
- Pool house
- Large garage
- Bigger plot of land
Regards, Steffen
Indulged in:
- A+ location
- Over 280sqm (over 3000 sq ft) of living space
- Great architect and a perfect floor plan for us
- Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery
- Fireplace (€12,000)
- KNX/DALI system etc. (around €50,000 extra)
- Air conditioning in 3 rooms (around €10,000)
- Lots of smart home “gadgets”
- 3m (10 ft) screen integrated into the ceiling (around €7,000) + ceiling-mounted projector (€10,000) + 7.2.4 surround system by Nubert (around €8,000)
- “Hobby” garage: heated, insulated, 2 skylights, water and sewage connections, 65-inch TV + couch
- Large gallery with window from the children’s bathroom
- Large master bathroom with rounded Villeroy & Boch bathtub including LED features, rain shower, etc., overall about €40,000 in sanitary materials throughout the house
- 1000-liter (264 gallons) buffer tank + 15sqm (160 sq ft) solar panels with two heating circuits (low & high temperature)
- Expensive kitchen (including Gaggenau appliances and wine fridge), about €45,000
- 30sqm (320 sq ft) Accoya terrace (around €12,000)
- Complete exterior landscaping finished by move-in (around €100,000)
Foregone:
- Basement
- Pool house
- Large garage
- Bigger plot of land
Regards, Steffen
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