ᐅ Which energy standard to build to?

Hello everyone,

We want to build a single-family house of about 170m² (1,830 sq ft).

Originally, I thought we would definitely build to KfW 70 standard, maybe even KfW 55. But in discussions with builders, we are always advised against it, as the additional costs supposedly won’t pay off and there wouldn’t be any significant energy savings later on. What do you think? How are you building?

We definitely want to use brick for construction, and we are still undecided about the heating system—gas or heat pump.

I am not an expert, but we were told that the economic effort to go from the Energy Saving Ordinance to a KFW70 house is significantly lower than the step from KFW70 to a KFW55 house – especially since a certified assessor must be involved for the latter.

We chose the KFW70 standard without considering any subsidies or loans. Thanks to controlled ventilation and a ground-source heat pump, our actual energy consumption is even closer to the KFW55 level.

Achieving good insulation values is more challenging with brick construction than with timber frame construction, so we will build using a timber frame. We aim for KfW 40 standard. A brick-by-brick builder we visited gave us a strange look when we mentioned KfW 70, as this doesn’t seem to be very popular with them.

The assessor must also be involved in the KFW-70 subsidy program (nowadays).

toxicmolotow schrieb:
The surveyor must also be involved with KfW-70 funding (by now).

I didn’t know that – it wasn’t the case back in 2011

That's why "since 2015" now.