Is it practical to heat a single-family house (approx. 140 m² (1,500 sq ft)) with KfW55 insulation standard and triple glazing solely using a ventilation heating system? What are the differences between the prefab house manufacturers Weberhaus (Proxon), Proxon sales (Zimmermann ventilation), and Schwörerhaus (heat recovery 134 BPHK)? Which system is better, and why?
Would a geothermal heat exchanger be useful for both systems?
Do both systems require an additional heat pump for domestic hot water?
In which rooms would additional electric heaters be necessary?
Would a geothermal heat exchanger be useful for both systems?
Do both systems require an additional heat pump for domestic hot water?
In which rooms would additional electric heaters be necessary?
B
Bauexperte1 Apr 2015 10:34Hello,
it would be helpful if you could complete your profile!
Regarding your questions, they can be answered in a way similar to deciding whether to buy a red or black car. If you want to receive useful information from the homeowners here, it’s advisable to provide some background on your current situation first, so that users know which parts of their experiences might be relevant.
Best regards, Bauexperte
it would be helpful if you could complete your profile!
Regarding your questions, they can be answered in a way similar to deciding whether to buy a red or black car. If you want to receive useful information from the homeowners here, it’s advisable to provide some background on your current situation first, so that users know which parts of their experiences might be relevant.
Best regards, Bauexperte
In my opinion, a ventilation heater alone is not very practical, but companies like Schwörerhaus and Bien-Zenker promote it as THE innovation (it simply makes prefabricated houses cheaper...). By choosing this, you give up (forever) on underfloor heating and will never be able to switch your energy source (gas, electricity, etc.) later on. With a traditional underfloor heating system, you can switch from gas to an air-to-water heat pump or vice versa. I wouldn’t want to lose that flexibility. Another drawback is that with a ventilation heater, the heat comes from the wall at a higher level. This means the floor is generally a few degrees cooler.
We have been living in a Schwörer house rated KfW 70 with ventilation and ventilation heating for two years. I agree with you that I was initially skeptical about whether and how it would work—especially concerning electricity consumption and the negative reputation of "electric heating." However, after two years, I am satisfied with the system. At first, it was challenging to find the right settings for comfortable warmth and low energy use, but that simply requires experience over time.
Overall, you have to get used to the system’s certain inertia (in winter, the heat pump runs 24/7, but the supplementary electric heater in each room is used very sparingly). Most importantly, you need to quickly abandon the long-ingrained habit of “coming home, room is cold, turn on heater, room warms up,” or it will become a money pit. The approach here works differently than simply turning up traditional radiators. The orientation of the house (ours faces southwest) and large windows in the living room are important so we can still make use of the winter sun.
As an additional quick solution if we want more heat fast, we have a wood stove in the living room. Since we live in a rural area, wood is no problem. Our average temperature in winter is about 21–23°C (70–73°F). Because the system is relatively straightforward, there are hardly any parts that require maintenance. Only the air filters in the ventilation system need to be replaced.
In the future, we plan to add a photovoltaic system to the house to ideally use our own electricity during sunny winter days. If electricity storage technology improves further by then, that will also be worth considering. This is where the advantage of electric heating over water-based systems becomes clear—I can feed the generated energy directly into the house network and convert it into heat without any detours.
All in all, for me, the so often feared reputation of ultra-bad electric heating has lost its scare factor—we used about 5,500 kWh for hot water, ventilation, and heating last year.
Overall, you have to get used to the system’s certain inertia (in winter, the heat pump runs 24/7, but the supplementary electric heater in each room is used very sparingly). Most importantly, you need to quickly abandon the long-ingrained habit of “coming home, room is cold, turn on heater, room warms up,” or it will become a money pit. The approach here works differently than simply turning up traditional radiators. The orientation of the house (ours faces southwest) and large windows in the living room are important so we can still make use of the winter sun.
As an additional quick solution if we want more heat fast, we have a wood stove in the living room. Since we live in a rural area, wood is no problem. Our average temperature in winter is about 21–23°C (70–73°F). Because the system is relatively straightforward, there are hardly any parts that require maintenance. Only the air filters in the ventilation system need to be replaced.
In the future, we plan to add a photovoltaic system to the house to ideally use our own electricity during sunny winter days. If electricity storage technology improves further by then, that will also be worth considering. This is where the advantage of electric heating over water-based systems becomes clear—I can feed the generated energy directly into the house network and convert it into heat without any detours.
All in all, for me, the so often feared reputation of ultra-bad electric heating has lost its scare factor—we used about 5,500 kWh for hot water, ventilation, and heating last year.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier... the living comfort provided by the central ventilation system is simply phenomenal.
There is no stale air; you don’t wake up in the morning with the usual nighttime stuffiness. You don’t need to tilt windows open (I only do that every three months to prevent the seals from sticking). After cooking, the smells disappear within about 30 minutes. No mosquitoes ruining your night, less pollen inside the house—no yellow residue like before. After showering, there is no condensation running down everywhere.
There is no stale air; you don’t wake up in the morning with the usual nighttime stuffiness. You don’t need to tilt windows open (I only do that every three months to prevent the seals from sticking). After cooking, the smells disappear within about 30 minutes. No mosquitoes ruining your night, less pollen inside the house—no yellow residue like before. After showering, there is no condensation running down everywhere.
In our town, there is a single-family house with a gable roof that has the entire attic area covered with translucent elements. The air warmed by the sun there is used effectively. I’ll take a photo of it when I get the chance...
Although I personally think it looks quite bad, the owners are very pleased with it, and it works very well and efficiently.
Although I personally think it looks quite bad, the owners are very pleased with it, and it works very well and efficiently.
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