ᐅ KfW 55 – Insulation Below the Concrete Slab

Created on: 25 Apr 2019 10:13
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Hausbauenxx
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Hausbauenxx
25 Apr 2019 10:13
Technical page: Tables for U-value calculation and annual heating demand.

Section with tables for monthly balances: window data and heat losses in kWh/month

Monthly balance 5.4 (continued): heat losses, internal/solar heat gains, windows/heating values.

Report with tables on transmission heat losses, ventilation losses and building component data.

KfW requirements: table with building data and EnEV overall assessment (2016).
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guckuck2
25 Apr 2019 11:01
Ultimately, the building element needs to achieve a specific U-value. The construction method does not matter in the end. Whether you have 6cm (2.4 inches) of insulation below and 12cm (4.7 inches) on top, or the other way around, makes no difference from an energy efficiency perspective.
The advantages and disadvantages may lie in the costs and the impact on the planned heights.
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Grantlhaua
25 Apr 2019 11:10
Hello,

we didn’t apply for KfW funding (since the conditions were unfavorable last year), but we would have easily met the KfW55 standard. We also decided against insulation under the basement slab, probably for the same reasons your builder advised against it. Here, the energy consultant, the builder, and I all agree that placing a house weighing several hundred tons on insulation foam is not a good idea. This material has been used for about 20 years now, but no one really knows how it will perform after 50 or 70 years. From an energy standpoint, insulation under the slab only makes a significant difference for houses without basements—due to thermal bridges at the slab-to-wall transitions—making it worthwhile in those cases. For houses with a basement, this effect is minimal because the basement is below the frost line. At depths of 3–5 meters (10–16 feet), the ground temperature remains fairly constant between 10–15°C (50–59°F) year-round.

Is your basement heated? Our energy consultant mentioned that you end up heating the ground rather than the other way around. Did your energy consultant also run calculations without perimeter insulation? I just found the report and our result was 29.78 kWh/m²a.
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Lumpi_LE
25 Apr 2019 11:27
Whether the insulation is above or below the slab doesn’t matter at all for KfW55. You got a professional...
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Snowy36
25 Apr 2019 11:38
What do you think could happen?

The insulation under the slab isn’t that thick... even if it gets compressed, the house won’t fall over, right? (-:
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hampshire
25 Apr 2019 11:52
Insulation can be applied partly below and partly on top of the concrete slab (as in our house, although I don’t remember why). In the end, it doesn’t really matter how the required insulation value is achieved.