ᐅ Groundwater / Ground Source and Air-to-Water System Requirements Set by the Development Area

Good morning,
I’m new to this forum and trying to work my way through the topics as best as I can.
My family and I want to build a single-family house – 150 sqm (1,615 sq ft), located in North Rhine-Westphalia, a new development area, for a total of 3 people (2 adults, 1 child).
The development requires the use of a cold local heating network, meaning you pay a fixed price regardless of how much you actually use.
This would come with a brine-to-water heat pump, including maintenance and so on. However, you’re tied to the energy supplier in terms of the heat price – the system is not allowed to be powered by a photovoltaic system. Estimated monthly heating costs from the supplier are about EUR 115 (USD 115) per month, including cooling.
What do you think about this? Should we accept the offer, or rather go with an air-to-water heat pump from the house builder, who says their system can cover heating for “60 EUR (USD 60) per month”?
I’m very skeptical but don’t have the technical knowledge to make a proper assessment.

Looking forward to your feedback.

An individual ground-source heat pump with installation and drilling will easily cost you at least 13,000 euros, more likely around 20,000 euros, plus there will also be maintenance costs. Divide the “saved” 60 € difference over the estimated lifespan (expected service life) of the ground-source heat pump and then decide :p

I assume that the offered cooling supply requires no further investment? In other words, the 120 € already includes the ground-source heat pump?

I’m not a fan of mandatory or imposed solutions. Often there is a “non-transparent” and deliberately complicated (billing) scheme behind it. But sometimes it also makes sense (both ecologically and economically).

According to the supplier, the one-time costs involved (which have to be paid anyway) plus about €120 create an “all-inclusive package.”
Meaning no maintenance, repair costs, etc.
Apart from that, the house provider will deduct nearly €9,000 from the house price since I won’t need their heating system.
For me, it’s basically clear that I should go with the “deal” offered by the supplier. But since, as I said, I’m a layperson and heating technology is important and can’t just be changed overnight without financial consequences, I wanted to get a few opinions first :-)
Besides, a ground-source heat pump is supposed to be somewhat more efficient than an air-source heat pump, right?!

We have already discussed this topic before.
It is important to carefully review the conditions.

Do you have a link to the previous discussion? The problem is simply that we will likely need to make a decision in about 4-6 weeks, and, as everyone here probably knows better than I do, there are still several other decisions to be made. But without knowing which technology is most suitable, it will be difficult to move forward.

AzudemB schrieb:

Apart from that, the house provider will deduct almost 9,000 from the house price since I don't need their heating system.

If the additional monthly cost compared to having your own heating system is around €50 (about $55), you can calculate for yourself whether the offer is worthwhile and how. It would take 15 years to break even in terms of costs. And if you choose to buy your own heating system at the start, you will probably need a new heat pump later on.