ᐅ House electricity consumption – what is your usage?

Bookstar schrieb:

A heat pump basically gives you 3 free units of heat for every 4 units of electricity used. With storage heaters, you pay for all 4 units. So that is already a big, actually huge difference.

Regarding potential faults due to more complex technology, the differences are huge as well... 🙂

But okay... more technology can (!) also have advantages.

Tolentino schrieb:

I have white windows both inside and outside, and the facade is white as well. This is mainly for cost reasons. To avoid being targeted by the local anti-boredom crowd, I’m planning to paint green fake trim around the windows—somehow matching our roof tiles. I don’t have a clear idea yet of how it will look, but I imagine it will be quite appealing.

Wrong thread, right? 😉 :p

2200 kWh... I generate 1100 myself with my photovoltaic system.
175 sqm (1900 sqft), living alone, and my little one stays with me every other week.

pagoni2020 schrieb:

You were away from the street for a while... um... from the forum...

Oh, right, yes, I just somehow forgot. We have moved now, so there isn’t much new construction progress to report.
I could update my build diary with the “drama” around our heat pump software. But it’s not really that dramatic, so probably not very exciting.

Schimi1791 schrieb:

That is definitely not my intention.
I just thought there might have been more clear progress in that area, meaning a significant reduction in energy consumption, especially since the houses are so well insulated.

I find it quite remarkable that the heat pump works as efficiently as it does. After all, it is an electric heating system. Anyone who has ever used a plug-in electric heater knows how much energy those consume. A lot has happened here, and I find the technology fascinating. The consumption is roughly comparable to paying the same amount as heating with a fossil fuel. There are calculators for that online too.
Beforehand, we experimented with the Tecalor Toolbox calculator and knew that our costs would be roughly the same as before. That was fine with me. From my perspective, the benefits are:
- no gas connection required (potential hazard? More theoretical than practical. Saves about 2000€).
- the entire house can be powered by renewable energy.
- avoidance of CO2 taxes (in my opinion, CO2 will become much, much more expensive in the future).
- great synergy with photovoltaic systems. Our solar array is seriously undersized. We’re considering expanding and covering the whole roof with modules, as many as will fit.

Modern insulation certainly saves energy costs, but what offsets that in our case is the mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. Which I NEVER want to be without again. I absolutely love it.
A modern mechanical ventilation system has very high heat recovery — ours is around 95%. That sounds excellent, but it also means that with every complete air exchange, 5% of the heat is lost and needs to be reheated. On top of that, in winter, you still open doors or windows occasionally.
However, the indoor climate with mechanical ventilation compared to before is simply a whole new level of living comfort. In our old rental, we kept all openings closed as much as possible (door shut, drafts! Don’t heat out the window!) just to keep energy costs down.

In our new house, for roughly the same cost as before, we have warmth AND always good air quality. What an improvement!

kati1337 schrieb:

...
I find it quite surprising that heat pumps can operate so efficiently at all. After all, they are electric heating systems.
...

Exactly ... an (efficient) electric heating system combined with photovoltaics. I’ve already asked elsewhere if there might still be potential to improve heat pump efficiency by innovations in refrigerants. That would further reduce energy consumption. I guess there isn’t much more to gain from insulation (?).

kati1337 schrieb:

...
- no gas connection needed (potential safety hazard? Probably only theoretical. But it saves 2,000€).
...

I was lucky enough to get the gas connection for free. But whether we will still use gas heating—because of the CO2 tax—is uncertain. A heat pump combined with photovoltaics is unrealistic for us. That would leave only pellets (?). Gas is probably the simplest option and, compared to oil, at least not quite as "bad". Basically, burning oil feels like a waste, considering what a (good) chemist can make from it—which is a lot! 🙂
It is unfortunate, though, that we don’t have a chimney—or at least don’t need one if there’s a heat pump. That definitely saves some costs but also blocks the option to install a wood-burning stove, which I wouldn’t want to give up.

kati1337 schrieb:

...
- avoidance of the CO2 tax (in my personal opinion, CO2 will become much, much more expensive)
...

Let’s just hope they don’t introduce some kind of “heat pump tax” or “CO2 savings tax” soon. An “energy from air tax” wouldn’t be out of the question either … 🙂

kati1337 schrieb:

...
A modern controlled residential ventilation system …

I would really like to have a controlled residential ventilation system too 🙂 Unfortunately, at least for now, we have an uncontrolled "controlled" ventilation system due to our older front door.

Zaba12 schrieb:

Yes, that’s been my issue for the past few days. I turned on the underfloor heating on December 12th and have been tweaking the ideal comfort temperature since then. Here’s the energy consumption from December 12th. The heating was switched on around 9 a.m. which you can clearly see. Yesterday, the total household consumption including heating was 19.7 kWh, with the upper and lower floors maintained between 20-20.5°C (68-69°F).
Currently, it’s 22.3°C (72°F), and we expect to reach about 26 kWh by midnight.
The next 3-4 days are forecasted to finally bring some sunshine again.

That’s the Kostal app, right? Did they seriously rename the “Live Data” tab to “Latest Data” because they couldn’t manage to get a real live view working? 😀