ᐅ New Single-Family Home Construction – Gas or Air Source Heat Pump + Photovoltaic System + Energy Storage?

In my opinion, the main problem is that we are currently trying to address too many issues at the same time. We have the nuclear phase-out (which actually only applies to us in Germany), including the energy transition, changes in transportation and electric mobility, and a completely overheated housing and new construction market. At the same time, unfortunately, we are still dealing with a global pandemic that has cost billions.

Now there are demands to push deadlines forward at all costs, although even the current schedules are already unrealistic. This has sparked an ideological competition that will ultimately be paid for by consumers. The CO2 targets for this year are effectively already missed, and starting in January, this will have significant impacts at fuel pumps, for example. This, in turn, will further increase costs for retail, logistics, construction, and other sectors.

That’s right. The important thing is to direct the thanks to the right recipients (the past federal governments). And since a "more of the same (or something similar)" approach is very likely again after this election, the situation will continue to worsen and will really hurt in 10 years.

If we had continued on the path set 20 years ago, we would now be climate-neutral, technological leaders in all key technologies for the coming decades, and could comfortably lean back and export our expertise. A real pity, really.

I’m bringing this thread back up. When building our house, we didn’t get good advice due to lack of knowledge, and we’re currently constructing a house to meet the Energy Saving Ordinance standards with gas plus solar thermal 🙁 The house will have a heat recovery ventilation system and a small fireplace. Since construction is already underway, we no longer have the option for subsidies. The step up to a KFW 55 standard wasn’t actually that far away, but we didn’t realize that back then. Unfortunately, we really dropped the ball on that.

For several weeks now, the gas issue has been giving us serious headaches. Thanks for this thread! Even though I still haven’t made a decision after reading it.

Ideally, we’d like to switch to a ground source heat pump (our neighbor has had one for 14 years and speaks very highly of it). We’ve gotten quotes but can’t afford a ground source heat pump without subsidies. We’ve been calculating back and forth for days, but the ground source heat pump would cost us 30,000 euros more (the savings from no gas condensing boiler and solar thermal are already factored in). So, that’s a really big chunk, in my opinion. An air-to-water heat pump would cost us 12,000 euros more. That’s also a lot, but we might be able to manage it over the next few years. What arguments have we gathered so far (also thanks to this thread)?

Gas
+ proven technology
+ quiet
+ requires no special knowledge
+ reliably heats at all outdoor temperatures

± you could opt for an eco-gas tariff that invests in CO2 offset projects

- fossil fuel
- price fluctuations
- only in combination with solar thermal

Air-to-water heat pump
+ CO2 neutral
+ can be combined with own photovoltaic system
+ no need for solar thermal

- may disturb our neighbor (his bedroom is 8m (26 feet) from where the unit would be installed)
- requires knowledge / a steep learning curve
- apparently a short lifespan (10 to 20 years is what we read online)
- investment without subsidies probably won’t pay off for us

I’ve already tried to figure out how future-proof gas is and whether there will be alternatives fed into existing gas networks. At the moment, about every second household in Germany heats with gas. But the outlook so far has been rather disappointing.

For climate reasons, we would choose the air-to-water heat pump as a financial compromise. But we’re worried it might just bring us problems (with the neighbors, because of our lack of technical understanding, and financially). Maybe someone here has a good tip or food for thought to help us decide 🙂

Your gas boiler can also process hydrogen.
I would recommend photovoltaic panels instead of solar thermal systems.
Electricity prices are also rising. At times when you need the most energy, you have the least available (at night, in winter...).
Since your budget is already tight, go with the gas boiler.

I would suggest going for an air-to-water heat pump or a ground-source water-to-water heat pump with a trench collector.

How many of your neighbors have an air-to-water heat pump?

french_fry schrieb:

Ignorance is not a good advisor, and we are currently building an energy-saving regulation-compliant house with gas plus solar thermal system. The house will have a controlled mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery and a small fireplace.

Then you haven’t spent enough time here!
Did you originally plan the combination with underfloor heating on the ground floor and radiators on the upper floor?

french_fry schrieb:

We have been calculating back and forth for days, but the ground source heat pump would cost us 30,000 euros more (the savings from not installing the gas condensing boiler and solar thermal system are already taken into account).

Can you provide a detailed breakdown of the costs?