ᐅ Building according to the Building Energy Act or EH55 or EH40 standards

It depends on how you define the lifecycle. Should I conduct a study on how extremely expensive car ownership is or how CO2-unfriendly electric cars are... then I have several options.

I can set the lifespan of a passenger car at 150,000 km (93,200 miles), during which the residual value of the vehicle drops to zero. This was how ADAC used to calculate it until a few years ago; I’m not familiar with the current methodology.

I can calculate the electricity supply for an electric car entirely from coal power and argue that these vehicles are mostly charged in the evening, when there is no solar power available.

I can include lithium production and the environmental damage to landscapes, while ignoring that for combustion engines, gasoline is also not produced at the pump and that oil extraction causes significant environmental damage in producing countries.

In short:
What I want to prove can be supported in a study by choosing the appropriate parameters.

Therefore, an EH40 house will likely pay off over a lifespan of 100 years, maybe even 50 years, provided you don’t take out a loan at 4% interest with 1.5% repayment and the CO2 price develops from 2027 as forecasted.

But it doesn’t help me if I only break even at the tender age of 80 or 90 and then finally start saving money when life is really supposed to begin 😉
Even at the relatively young age of 70, that would clearly be too late for me... and by then I would definitely be paying a high rate if I had built EH40 instead of "just" GEG 2020... which is already a decent standard.

xMisterDx schrieb:

Provided you don’t take a loan at 4% with 1.5% repayment

Let me try a different calculation here. Unfortunately, I have to rely on data and prices from the internet.

Annual maintenance for an air-source heat pump according to Bosch: €300 (around $320)
Operating costs for a central ventilation system with heat recovery: €180 (around $190) at €0.32 per kWh (about $0.34 per kWh)
Annual maintenance including filter replacement: €100 (about $105)
Cleaning every 4 to 8 years: €400 to €800 (around $425 to $850), which equals roughly €50 to €200 per year (about $55 to $210)
Assuming €100 ($105) per year here
This brings maintenance and operating costs to €680 ($720) per year so far
At this point, the circulation pump isn’t running yet, and I haven’t heated or produced hot water.
By the end of the year, we are looking at about €1000 ($1050), although less than one-third is actually for heating energy alone.
Now I want to compare this to a house built in 2004 with insulation slightly above the standard of that time: U-value 0.33 W/(m²·K)
Windows: U-value 1.3 W/(m²·K)
Heating demand: 9 kW
No ventilation system
Maintenance-free air-source heat pump
Of course, the energy consumption is quite a bit higher.
At the moment, we are at 1850 kWh
Plus maybe another 900 to 1000 kWh for October, November, and December
Multiply this by €0.28 per kWh (around $0.30) plus €90 ($95) for the meter rental
Worst case would be about €900 ($950)
In 2022, it was €728.77 (including meter rental)
No idea how EH40 can make sense without 4% interest rates.

I share the same view regarding maintenance costs. Modern houses often include many more technical systems and equipment than were common in the past. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, water softening, smart home automation in various forms, and so on. It’s clear that all these also incur costs for maintenance and operation. However, we were aware of this during the planning stage and budgeted accordingly for operating expenses. We also understood from the start that most of these comfort features would never really pay for themselves. We have noticed that many people nowadays can no longer distinguish between comfort improvements and genuine energy-saving measures and assume that a house with a very high energy efficiency standard automatically comes with lower operating costs than one with a lower standard. But that is not always the case. It depends on the details and all the installed components.

Allthewayup schrieb:

I share the same view regarding maintenance costs. Newer houses often have many more technical devices and systems than were common in the past—controlled ventilation systems, water softening, home automation in various forms, etc. Naturally, all of this entails higher costs for maintenance and operation.

However, this has little to do with the question of energy standards, especially when comparing GEG2016 and EH40. I stand by my position: anyone who presents figures must also explain how they arrived at them. This is even more important when claiming to have disproved established knowledge ("previously underestimated..."). Otherwise, it is just a biased expert opinion for someone’s benefit.

Radfahrer schrieb:

Maintenance-free air source heat pump

Crazy stories from Paulanergarten, episode 23.

Harakiri schrieb:

Crazy stories from the Paulaner Garden, episode 23.

Well, then I made a mistake.
The system was sold to me as a maintenance-free heat pump.
By the way, I also don’t service my refrigerator.
Sure, we have had one issue or another, but after almost 19 years, that seems normal.