HEATING
GOAL: so viel wie nötig, so wenig wie möglich
(as much as needed, as little as possible)
Units: Kilowatt Hours
This one's remarkably easy- if you've paid attention to your building materials and envelope. From here on out, it's simple math. How much heat your building requires depends on how much it loses, as well as how much heat the buildings' occupants add to it while going about their daily lives.
How you will heat depends on many factors, there isn’t one “best system” for all situations. Let’s take a favourite project of mine: remote homestead on the northern coast. Off-grid, limited solar gains, but wind coming up and down the inlet all year.
A hint right off the bat: nothing complicated or service-intensive. Because these systems never break down on a sunny day in July.
Suggested system: Micro/Mini Wind Turbine (5-10KW) powering a battery bank. Excess loads dump to a 500L buffer tank. Buffer activates a central radiant wall in the house. For redundancy, a small (3.5-7KW) woodstove is installed.
Is it ethical to design a Passive House and then use baseboard heaters to heat it? If you’re asking these questions, you’re in the right place.