ᐅ Optimal Heating for Prefabricated Houses: Air-to-Air Heat Pump vs. Air-to-Water Heat Pump?

Hello everyone,
We are planning to build next year and are currently trying to figure out which type of house would be right for us. We haven’t decided yet between a solid (massive) construction or a prefabricated house, although I’m afraid that the solid house might be beyond our budget.

So far, we have consulted with two major prefab house suppliers, and one topic that surprised me a bit is the heating and ventilation.

Due to the airtight construction of the houses, a controlled mechanical ventilation system seems to be almost unavoidable nowadays, which I can understand to some extent. According to one advisor, about 95% of newly built single-family houses are heated with heat pumps, which caught me off guard as I hadn’t looked into it deeply before.

I have already researched these systems somewhat, and while some users are very satisfied, others deeply regret their choice because during winter they either feel cold or experience very high electricity consumption.

My concerns are:
- Higher electricity consumption than predicted
- Electricity price developments in the coming years
- With an air-to-air heat pump, you are tied to this system, and later conversion to another energy source seems very complicated
- With an air-to-water heat pump combined with underfloor heating, in the worst case you could later connect the underfloor heating to another heat source.

Is it really true that with the current insulation standards a heat pump is the best solution for a prefab house?
In our discussions, the advisors— even when asked— hardly mentioned other energy sources like gas, pellets, or wood, which makes sense since those might produce too much heat, right?
Are there still suppliers who build prefab houses without controlled mechanical ventilation and with conventional underfloor heating?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Bleeker schrieb:

(although I fear that the solid construction house will exceed the budget).

This is a misconception – solidly built houses by the local general contractor are often significantly cheaper than prefabricated houses. At least, that was the case for us.

With the solid construction, you can also easily accommodate such “special requests.”

A prefabricated house is not cheaper. If you build with HUF or Kampa, you are in the high-end range, and almost every solid (masonry or concrete) house is cheaper. Even Scanhaus Marlow is not necessarily less expensive than Town & Country.

A ground source heat pump (GSHP) is excellent in a modern, well-insulated new build that is designed for it. An air source heat pump (ASHP) is intended for passive houses and can safely be called "nonsense."

In a newly renovated old building (energy saving regulations), you will not be happy with a ground source heat pump.

Electricity is already close to the maximum level of taxation. If a CO2 tax is introduced on gas, cheap gas will be a thing of the past.

In a newly built old building (energy saving regulation), you won’t be happy with an air-to-water heat pump.

Hello fragg,
why wouldn’t I be satisfied with a ground source heat pump in a building constructed to energy saving regulation standards?

Regards,
dropss

He means an air-to-water heat pump, but I don’t really understand why. They only built according to the energy saving regulations with an air-to-water heat pump, which heats the entire house in winter. The water is warm all year round, and the electricity costs are reasonable.

Ah, okay, thanks. My mistake.