Zero Energy Homes in Europe
 

I came across a couple of very interesting videos that illustrate just how Zero Energy Homes are no longer just a curiosity and are entering full-scale production.



A couple of things jumped out at me from this first video, besides the amazingly well organized construction techniques... First was the use of combination solar PV and solar heat in the same panel, and second was the fact that the excess energy from the house could be used to power an electric car. How great is that??!!

EDIT:

I found an indestructible were some guy sucessfully built a hybrid PV & Thermal solar panel!

Also THIS




I like this second video because it indicates how production techniques can be applied to greatly upgrade energy waste on row houses. Also, careful observation will reveal techniques that can be incorporated into new construction by anyone.



Best,

-AC

The image in your post (from the first video) shows that warm, dirty air for the ventilation heat exchanger is taken not only from the bathroom and kitchen, but also from the exhaust of the gas-fired boiler/water heater. Now, this is a great idea, but the HX would have to be protected from the acidic condensate and, more important, would have to guarantee that there is no risk of the exhaust mixing with incoming fresh air. Get around that so that building inspectors are satisfied, and you're golden!

I thought it might be a bit aggressive... but lesser problems have been solved.

-AC

And greater problems too, haha

Yeah, those too!

But I was thinking about this... and the gas-fired demand water heater exhaust part could be solved by hacking a heat pump water heater, instead of burning gas... better cheaper.

Better to reduce energy through efficiency... then recovery becomes a smaller, more reasonable undertaking.

I think that there was a history element to this video, like the history of zero energy homes.

But the widespread use of heat pumps, for so many purposes, even to the point of the secrets of the technology falling into the eagerly awaiting hands of hackers such as ourselves, hadn't happened yet.

Then there's induction cooking.

So energy not used is more efficient than energy recovered.

-AC

Because their energy costs have been much higher for so long Europeans especially the crafty and money conscious Germans have had incentive to design for super efficiency. But you knew that. I was in Luxemburg touring a Handswerkskammer. They produced their own power with several Detroit Diesel 98s and used the exhaust heat to run the massive ammonia chiller as well as water heating. They claimed it was cheaper than the expensive power from their grid.

Very cool!

Now if you could put your superior TX brain to work and figure out how anybody could DIY such a system on a single home scale...

-AC