ᐅ Hydronic Wood-Burning Stove, Underfloor Heating, Heat Pump, Photovoltaic System in New Construction?

Here in this area, a cubic meter of timber can easily cost 70-80 euros (about 75-90 USD) including delivery. A stove is not a must-have for a house, neither with a gas connection nor with a heat pump. So this argument (extra costs) only applies if a stove was planned anyway. Otherwise, with a heat pump, you even have the chimney shaft to consider.

toxicmolotow schrieb:
Otherwise, a heat pump can even involve adding a chimney draft.

Not only with a heat pump, but sometimes also with a gas condensing boiler. A gas condensing unit usually only requires a small plastic flue pipe.

In our initial planning, we considered a pellet stove with a water jacket. Various dealers shared the following insights:

A water-guided stove heats well within the system loop, but this reduces the heat released directly into the room. Additionally, there are extra costs for the chimney system, the purchase price for this type of stove is significantly higher, and the heating system needs to be planned accordingly.

A stove of any kind works well with underfloor heating only if you genuinely live by the stove’s heat, as underfloor heating responds slowly, and you might end up opening windows because the house gets too warm. We didn’t want to heat in vain.

Experience from neighbors confirmed this statement.

We are now installing a gas condensing boiler with a hot water storage tank and underfloor heating. We had a wood stove in our previous home. I no longer want to deal with the mess, chopping, and carrying wood, and my husband hasn’t been able to for health reasons for some time. Wood costs about 70-80 € per stacked cubic meter. Therefore, pellets were an option.

Without the water jacket and all related components, the stove would have cost almost €13,000. Quite expensive!

There will always be differing opinions about heating types.

Visit one or two or three stove builders and get advice. That is the most sensible approach.

You will learn a lot from it.

I believe that the building services should only be selected once more detailed information is available (heating load). Then it is possible to consider concretely whether and how something makes sense. In a well-insulated house located in a region that is not too cold, an air-to-water heat pump might be sufficient—and it might be best to avoid certain combinations, for example, because a buffer tank required here could reduce the overall system efficiency. Possibly better to have a small "decorative" stove—if any at all. We heat about 200 m² (including the basement) exclusively with the heat pump and do not miss having a fireplace. No chimney, no chimney sweeper, no fuel storage, no work, no mess—very low heating and hot water costs (2014: less than 2000 kWh in a cold region with 4 people)—works well.

The stove will be installed in my new build for the look and coziness. But without a water jacket!

In my parents’ house, the water jacket was rather disappointing. The firewood consumption increased significantly, and the time it took for the stove to get "warm" nearly doubled...

Annual heating costs are at most €1000 (about $1100) if everything is poorly planned.

I now believe that, from an economic point of view, only a self-dug trench collector, an air-to-air heat pump (the house must be suitable for this), or gas combined with solar is worthwhile.
Dual systems are definitely not worthwhile—heating is too "cheap" for that.

Air-to-water heat pumps are attractive because they benefit significantly from subsidies or incentives in calculations.

Regarding heating load: since heaters usually come in 2 kW increments, rough estimates are sufficient.