ᐅ KfW financing – is it necessary or not?

My question about building a new KfW 55 or better house: What exactly does it mean? Yesterday, I spoke with the managing director of a public construction company, and he advised me not to build a KfW house.

a) You would need a building supervisor (who is also specialized in this field).
b) If you insulate the house well, etc., the additional costs are low.

Furthermore, he recommended using a gas boiler + solar including battery instead of an air-to-water heat pump + solar including battery. The initial costs are much lower, and you will never recover the higher acquisition costs.

I am a bit confused. I originally planned to build at least a KfW 55 house.

For your information, our plot is fully developed, and a gas connection is available.

There is no simple answer to this, as many factors come into play. However, you can find plenty of reading material here in the forum and across the internet for months...

Regarding your questions:
a) Yes, but you also receive a repayment grant.
b) Yes, but this is only indirectly related to KfW.

An air-to-water heat pump or gas generally do not differ significantly. Batteries are pointless.

I would consider KfW55 as a minimum standard better for maintaining property value, but that’s just my opinion.

Regardless of whether you can recoup the additional costs (KfW and BAFA subsidies do add up), the decision is ultimately a personal one. We wanted to be as independent as possible from electricity, gas, and heating oil prices. We like the idea of our home being relatively self-sufficient. And yes, the ecological aspect definitely plays a role as well. But the priority you give this is something you have to decide for yourself.

saralina87 schrieb:

Putting aside whether you can recoup the additional costs (kfw and BAFA incentives add up), the decision is also a personal one.
We wanted to become as independent as possible from electricity, gas, or heating oil prices. We like the idea that our house is relatively self-sufficient. And yes, of course, the ecological aspect plays a role as well. But ultimately, you need to decide what priority that holds for you.

Ecology is always a matter of perspective. You shouldn’t only account for the savings, but also consider the environmental costs of production. Take electric cars, for example. While you save CO2 in use, just manufacturing the battery requires a lot of water and generates significant CO2 emissions.

Of course, manufacturing batteries is still not very environmentally friendly (we don’t have that). Especially when it comes to heating technology, I don’t think there’s much debate (but I’m happy to be proven wrong) – a fossil fuel (which also makes you very dependent on foreign sources) can, in my opinion, never come close ecologically to a heat pump combined with a photovoltaic system. Especially when considering the expected lifespan.

saralina87 schrieb:

Heat pump

... that gets its electricity during the heating season from fossil fuels? Or from a nuclear power plant? The photovoltaic system does not help in winter.

So is the heat pump ecological?