Energy-efficient (energy-saving) house: theory and practice. Energy efficient houses Energy efficient walls of houses

If we talk about how to build a passive house, then we should slightly change the well-known saying: “What is good for a German is also good for a Russian.” The technology for constructing such housing came to us from Germany, where it has been well known for quite some time. The Germans even developed a special Passivhaus Standard, which defines all the requirements for the design and construction of such structures.

Interest in Passivhaus arose after the crisis in the world energy system (1974), when scientists published information that at the existing rate of use of natural resources (oil, gas and coal) they would last for no more than 50 years. It was then that the first projects aimed at reducing energy consumption appeared in the housing construction sector.

At one of the UN International Energy Conferences (IEC), held at the very beginning of the 80s of the last century, designers came to a unanimous conclusion: modern houses have an extensive reserve for increasing energy efficiency. At the same time, the idea of building ready-made, efficient, and then passive buildings was born.
Such structures should:

consume a minimum amount of external energy;
have virtually no impact on the environment.

The Passive House Institute appeared in Darmstadt in the mid-90s. It was his specialists who developed the basic requirements for Passivhaus. The first energy-efficient house by Bott-Ridder and Westermauer was built in 1991 with the support of the Hessian Ministry of Economic Affairs. The project was led by Feist Wolfgang. A building for 4 families requires only 1 liter of liquid fuel per year to heat 1 square meter of area. The German experience was so successful that it was adopted by most European countries and today more than 40,000 passive houses have been built in the world.

Criteria for evaluation

All projects of energy-efficient houses must meet the main criterion - the specific consumption of thermal energy, which is spent on heating in the cold season, recalculated for the whole year. It is this indicator adopted in Europe that influences what type of house the house belongs to:

Passivhaus;
low and ultra-low heat consumption;
zero consumption;
positive energy balance.

The standard value for Passivhaus should not exceed 15 kWh/m2. At the same time, the total energy consumption of heating equipment and electrical appliances is up to 120 kWh/m2 per year. But the main feature of a passive house, which distinguishes it from ordinary ones, is a fundamentally different approach to design and construction. Until recently, not a single house in Russia, even one built using Passivhaus technology, is 100% so, precisely because it did not achieve the above indicators. It would be more appropriate to call Russian projects buildings with ultra-low (from 15 to 35 kWh/m2) and low (from 36 to 50 kWh/m2) heat consumption.

As for houses with zero energy consumption, they produce as much heat per year as they themselves use. And buildings with a positive indicator produce more than they consume and even have the opportunity to sell surplus to the network.

Houses with zero and positive indicators are characterized by:

the presence of a mounted autonomous power system (inverter source and photovoltaic panels);
connection to the city power grid, with the ability to “give away” the resource.

Typically, the draining of excess energy occurs in the morning, when the owners are absent. There are not so many buildings with this indicator all over the world, and in the climate of central Russia it is completely unrealistic to build such a house.

Another concept necessary to fully describe energy-efficient houses is active house. His concept is based on the fact that energy conservation should not harm human health, but only be in healthy harmony with him and nature. This is facilitated by the installation of special automation, which allows the building to independently control its own microclimate without the intervention of the owner. In short, such a structure is a combination of passive technologies and a smart home system.

And yet, what is an “energy efficient house”? There is no unambiguous definition of the term in Russian. Most likely, the definition appeared from SNiP “Thermal Protection of Buildings” from 2003, which considered the key concept of energy efficiency, divided into five classes from A to E, depending on the degree of deviation of the actual indicator from the calculated one. Passivhaus - buildings with energy efficiency class A or more.

Summarizing everything that has been written about energy-efficient buildings, we can say that this concept generally denotes a tendency to save the resources that a building requires. Houses can be built using any design and technology, but they are united by the use of the potential for heat conservation in order to achieve minimum energy consumption.

Basic principles of passive house

Passivhaus achieves a comfortable microclimate at any time of the year, both in winter, during the heating season, and in summer. In this case, air conditioning and heating are not used at all or only in the form of a compact low-power system. What made this possible and how to build an energy-efficient house?

In total, experts identify three “pillars” of Passivhaus:

sealed thermal insulation circuit;
airtight shell;
comfortable microclimate.

It is well known that most heat loss occurs through windows, walls and roofs. However, Passivhaus technology does not involve the use of any special materials for the construction of roofs and walls. The main task of the designer is to create a thermos shell that would not have cold bridges. It should cover not only the visible part of the house, but also the foundation. Even at the excavation stage, a sealed circuit with a high thermal insulation rate is formed. To close the circuit, it is necessary to install “warm” doors and windows, the heat loss of which is half that of the usual ones.

A comfortable microclimate is created using well-calculated supply and exhaust ventilation with heat recovery. Thanks to this system, air from the street is heated before entering the room and takes an active part in warming up the building. For Passivhaus heating, centralized or combined with alternative energy sources are used: wind generators, solar panels, photovoltaic cells, heat pumps.

Prospects for energy efficient houses in Russia

Is it possible to build energy-efficient houses in Russia? This issue worries both developers and customers who would like to significantly save money. If we think carefully, without excessive optimism, we can come to the following conclusion.

Yes, it is possible to create a heat-insulating sealed circuit, but only with the help of particularly effective protective materials. However, as practice has shown, in Russian pilot projects it was not always possible to avoid annoying mistakes by builders. At one of the sites, while checking the integrity of the vapor barrier, experts discovered too large areas of material that were not secured to the wooden base. The same fragments were located near the windows, which led to significant heat losses. The defects were eliminated in three stages, only after which the calculated air permeability indicators were achieved. This example clearly shows that no matter how ideally a structure is designed, even small errors during its construction nullify the work of the designer.

Energy efficiency of frame houses

Most likely, in the future, effective technologies will be developed that would make it possible to build Passivhaus in Russia. But in order for such buildings to be considered truly passive, specialists from the construction company Ecos agree that the value of the standard indicator must be recalculated. The same opinion is shared by representatives of other domestic developers who have begun to develop energy-efficient projects.

Observing all the nuances of the technology, in Russian climatic conditions it is difficult to achieve a value of 15 kWh/m2. And in this case, the saying we already mentioned at the beginning of the article should sound like: “What is good for a German is not always suitable for a Russian.” Today we cannot say that real Passivhaus are being built in our country. The name of the implemented projects is houses with low and ultra-low energy consumption or conditionally passive ones. However, the future lies precisely in such buildings, which already allow their owners to actively save money and fit positively into the environment. We recommend that everyone who is thinking about building their own suburban home today pay attention to heat consumption and how the standard indicator can reduce it.

In preparing the article, materials from the company "Ideas for Your Home" and the company ROCKWOOL were used

While studying a variety of different equipment and modern developments designed to save energy, we became interested in two very interesting systems. We invite you to take a closer look at them. One - known to many as a heat pump and less known in our market - is climatic. Our calculations have shown that their interaction achieves the most rational use of energy resources necessary to achieve a comfortable microclimate and clean mountain air in the premises. We propose to make them work together, and in an emergency they can work separately, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the rooms.

A heat pump is able to extract the energy of the Earth and transfer it to a coolant fluid. The climate system, in turn, works with a gaseous coolant. The energy received from the pump is transferred to the heated floor, through a parallel branch of pipelines for hot water supply and pool heating (if available), and to the climate system, which corrects the quality, temperature and humidity of the indoor air.

Energy-efficient technologies are increasingly becoming part of our modern life. Every person strives to make their home as warm and cozy as possible. And with the increase in gas tariffs, for example, maintaining a large house is not as easy as it seems. It is in order to save money that you can make your home energy efficient. What is this and how to achieve it - we will consider further.

What is energy efficiency?

Energy efficiency itself is the minimum cost directly related to electricity consumption. An energy-saving house can be called one in which energy costs are reduced by at least 30%.

That is, we get that an energy-efficient house is a residential-type building in which any energy losses are minimized, resulting in a reduction in active energy consumption. In Ukraine, heating is the most expensive for the population, so an important task of turning a house into an energy-efficient home is to reduce heat loss through insulation of the building structure.

Visualizing energy efficiency in numbers

This sensational indicator can be calculated by the coefficient of seasonal heat use, that is, E. When calculating the coefficient, it is also useful to know the ratio of the facade of the building to the volume of the house, the thickness of the insulation layer on the external and internal walls, the roof, the area of all windows and the number of people living in the house. The calculation formula is simple: the amount of heat generated (kW) must be divided by the amount of energy consumed (kW). In the form of numbers we get the following indicators:

E<= 110 кВт*ч /м2/год - обычный дом;
E<= 70 кВт*ч /м2/год - энергоэффективный;
E<= 15 кВт*ч /м2/год - пассивный.

If you take the average poorly insulated house, it loses heat through the external walls. Because of this, up to 70% of all energy consumed is spent on heating. In Ukraine, the heating season lasts, on average, 5-6 months, the climate is very harsh, but at times the temperature reaches 17-20 degrees Celsius. When analyzing, many people wonder whether it is profitable to build energy efficient ones? It seems as if the investment in this construction is so high that it will never pay off.

In fact, it is stupid to talk about the low cost of building an energy-efficient house. On average, the price will be 14% higher than the cost of a conventional one, but an active house will cost 60-70% less to operate.

Basic principles of an energy efficient home

The most important thing to strive for during construction is complete and absolute sealing of the structure. All cold bridges, even the smallest ones, must be closed.

If we draw an analogy between the creation of the world and the construction of an energy-saving house, then here too we can distinguish 3 pillars on which everything rests. The first is the thermal insulation contour of the foundation. As far as we know, the largest amount of heat escapes through the walls, however, the foundation also plays an important role. You need to think about future energy efficiency at the stage of digging a pit. Then builders create a special permanent thermal insulation circuit that prevents direct contact of the foundation with the ground. We also include energy-saving windows consisting of 3 or more chambers here. They help reduce heat loss by 50%.

The second pillar on which the energy efficiency of a house is based is a sealed airtight circuit.

The third pillar is a comfortable microclimate inside the house, which is created thanks to a properly built ventilation system with a recuperator.

How to build an energy efficient house?

No matter how it may seem, the construction of modern housing requires taking into account some important nuances:

develop a project only with proven, qualified organizations with more than one successful construction behind them;
At the same stage, consider using modern insulation materials in construction. This way you can reduce heat loss as much as possible;
windows “steal” about 15-25% of heat, so install only multi-package windows, preferably even with argon filling.

It was stated above that the foundation plays an important role in heat conservation. Many architects and experts recommend using an “insulated wall bars”.

That is, for this it is necessary to additionally insulate the foundation of the future house with special extruded polystyrene foam. Yes, only 10-15% of the total heat loss through the foundation is lost, but this can also be prevented.

At the design stage itself, it is important to determine the total area of the house, the height of the ceilings, the area of the facade, windows, and foundation. The type of ventilation also plays an important role, since through it the owner of the house loses about 10% of the generated heat.

How to make an existing house energy efficient?

The most important thing, since the main heat loss occurs through the walls, is to choose the best insulation. The thickness of the selected material depends on the structure of the house itself. The standards provide for a thickness of 150 mm, but in terms of energy efficiency - 250-300. In addition, you also need to take into account the materials and manufacturer of the insulation. Each specific brand is suitable for a specific type of construction.

Changing windows will also help reduce heat loss. High-quality double-glazed windows will retain up to 50% of heat. The difference between the loss of modern windows is small - 70-100 W/sq.m. But if the window area in the house is 40 sq.m., and the level of heat loss is the maximum of the above - 100 W, then all the glazing will “steal” 4000 W.

Ventilation will also make a difference. According to the standard, the entire volume of air in the building must be changed every hour. If, for example, we take a house of 170 m2, the ceiling height of which is 3 m, then 500 m3 of clean, street air is required every hour.

Now let’s calculate what kind of heat loss such an influx will entail by multiplying the area of the house by the height of the ceilings (this is how we get the volume of the house) and by the required influx. Result: 16.7*500=8500 W. To conserve heat, you can reduce air exchange or heat the street air using a ventilation system with heat exchangers.

Companies that build energy efficient houses

Of course, experienced developers with a staff of professional specialists will quickly and efficiently build a new house, making it the most energy-efficient. Below he will list the TOP-5 Ukrainian companies.

Optima House

“Optima House” is a subsidiary of the developer “Affordable Housing” and operates in Kyiv and the Kyiv region. It has been on the market since 2015, based on Western ideas and projects like “Active House”. The housing of this company is heated by a special heat pump, solar panels on the roof of the house and collectors for heating water. Residential buildings Optima House consumes 65% less energy than conventional houses. The cost of the company's services starts from $1000 per 1 sq.m. taking into account the interior decoration.

Life House Building

“Ecopan”

Another company in Dnepr, which uses exclusively environmentally friendly materials in its activities. For construction, engineers have come up with a technology similar to a constructor: first, individual elements are assembled into certain structures, and then they are connected to form a new house. Individual panels do not exceed a thickness of 20 cm, but this is enough to heat a house with an area of 200 m2 in frosty temperatures of -12 degrees. 2 only 10m 3 gas For comparison, this is 9 times less than what is needed to heat a conventional stone house of the same area. This company's environmentally friendly housing will cost $500 per 1 sq.m.

PassivDom

A fairly young startup company, founded in the spring of 2016. The company's goal is to build not just energy-efficient houses, but completely autonomous housing. The finished brainchild of PassivDom does not need to be connected to network communications, so you can build your own house of this type far in the mountains. The frame of the building is created on a 3D printer, and the absence of joints guarantees perfect tightness and thermal insulation. Initially, small panels of 36 m are printed 2 , and a solar battery is mounted on the roof. Dirty shower water, for example, is purified for reuse by a special built-in system.

Neoarce

The main focus of the company's activities is the German company Passichaus. Energy-saving houses are built with a special hermetic layer, which improves the already excellent thermal insulation, minimizing heat loss. Housing is supplied with energy through solar panels, heat pumps and collectors. To build such housing far from everyone, in the mountains or forest, you need to pay $1000 per 1 sq.m. 2 . This price includes interior finishing, setting up communications inside the house and installing plumbing.

What are the benefits?

The first and most important advantage that should be mentioned is the efficiency of an energy-saving house. To maintain it, you will reduce your costs by 60-70%. With current gas prices, these numbers are staggering. In addition, in 99.9% of such houses, solar panels and collectors are installed, which, due to the feed-in tariff, also become advantageous compared to network electricity supply.

The second and important advantage is the ability to use conventional main gas for heating. 10 cubic meters per day will be enough to create a comfortable temperature.

Are there any disadvantages?

Probably the only, but such a significant drawback is the high cost of building an energy-efficient house. Prices of companies on the Ukrainian market vary from 500 to 1000 dollars per 1 sq. m. meter and often include interior finishing services, installation of systems, wiring and installation of plumbing. The payback on the house will also take quite a long time and depends on the area, type of insulation, construction materials, level of modernization and upgrade.

Let's sum it up

Having analyzed all of the above, we can conclude that building an energy-saving house is a profitable and ambitious investment. A large investment that will fully pay for itself will reduce maintenance costs.

Now on the market you can find a huge number of components and necessary systems, which differ in price, but not in quality. Correctly selected and installed sensors reduce your heating costs by up to 40%. For example, a “smart home” will itself control turning on and off the lights, activating small and large household appliances, etc.

We study the problem through real experience, with calculations from specialists and forum members

Due to the steady increase in energy prices and the high cost of gas connections, an increasing number of developers are thinking about building an energy-efficient house.

We have already told the readers of our site about what technologies are used in its construction.

And FORUMHOUSE users will help us with this.

From our material you will learn:

Which house is energy efficient and which is not.
Is it possible to heat an energy-efficient house with electricity only?
How to calculate the required thickness of insulation.
Will building an energy efficient house pay off?

What is energy efficiency

Energy-efficient houses have been built in European countries for a long time, but for our country such housing is still exotic.

Many developers are distrustful of the construction of such buildings, considering it an unjustified waste of money.

Let's figure out whether this is true and whether it is profitable to build an energy-efficient house in relation to the climatic conditions of most zones of Russia, including Moscow.

An energy-efficient (energy-passive) house is a building in which the costs associated with energy consumption are on average 30% less than in a conventional house. Energy efficiency of recent times could be determined by the coefficient of seasonal thermal energy use - E.

E<= 110 кВт*ч /м2/год – это обычный дом;
E<= 70 кВт*ч /м2/год – энергоэффективный;
E<= 15 кВт*ч /м2/год – пассивный.

When calculating the E coefficient, the following are taken into account: the ratio of the area of all external surfaces to the entire cubic capacity of the house, the thickness of the thermal insulation layer in the walls, roof and ceilings, the glazing area and the number of people living in the building.

In Europe, to determine the energy efficiency class, it is customary to use the EP coefficient, which determines the amount of electricity spent on heating, hot water supply, light, ventilation and the operation of household electrical appliances.

The starting point is EP = 1 and energy class D, i.e. standard. The modern classification of houses adopted in European countries looks like this:

EP<= 0,25 – класс А, пассивный дом;
0.26 < ЕР <= 0,50 – класс В, экономичный;
0,51 < ЕР <= 0,75 – класс С, энергосберегающий дом;
0,75 < ЕР <= 1 – класс D, стандартный;
1,01< ЕР <= 1.25 – класс Е;
1,26 < EP <= 1,50 – класс F;
EP >1.51 – class G, the most energy-consuming.

In ordinary, insufficiently insulated housing with large heat losses through the building envelope, most of the energy (up to 70%) is spent on heating.

We can say that the owners of such a home heat the street.

Therefore, in European countries, no one will be surprised by the thickness of the insulation in the walls of 300-400 mm, and the outline of the building itself is made airtight.

The required level of air exchange in the house is maintained using a ventilation system, and not the mythical “breathing” of the walls.

But before you buy cubic meters of insulation, you need to understand when additional insulation and the whole range of measures associated with building an energy-efficient house are economically justified.

Energy efficiency in numbers

In our country, the heating season lasts on average 7-8 months, and the climate is more severe than in Europe. Because of this, a lot of controversy arises about whether it is profitable to build here energy saving houses. One of the most frequent statements made by opponents of energy-efficient construction is the argument that in our country the construction of such a building is very expensive, and the costs of its construction will never pay off.
But here is a comment from a member of our portal.

STASNN

In 2012, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, I built an energy-efficient house of 165 square meters. m of heated area with a specific energy consumption for heating of 33 kW*hours per sq. m per year. With an average monthly air temperature in winter of -17°C, the cost of heating with electricity amounted to 62.58 kWh per day.

You should pay attention to the technical characteristics of this house:

thickness of insulation in the floor – 420 mm;
insulation thickness in the walls – 365 mm;
The thickness of the insulation in the roof is 500 mm.

The cottage was built using frame technology. The heating system of the house is electric low-temperature convectors with a total power of 3.5 kW. Also installed in the house is a supply and exhaust ventilation system with a recuperator and a ground heat exchanger for heating street air. Vacuum solar collectors are additionally installed to supply hot water.

Total bill: 3.2 thousand rubles are spent on heating per month. at a 24-hour tariff of 1.7 rubles/kWh.

Also interesting is the experience of forum member Alexander Fedortsov (forum nickname Skeptic), who independently built a frame house of 186 square meters. m on a “insulated Swedish slab” foundation, with a homemade heat accumulator of 1.7 m3 and with electric heating elements embedded in it.

Skeptic

The house is heated with electricity through a water-heated floor system. For heating, a night tariff is used - 0.97 rubles / kW. At night, the coolant in the heat accumulator heats up to the desired temperature and turns off in the morning. The cubic capacity of the house is 560m3.

Result: In winter, in December, heating cost 1.5 thousand rubles. In January, a little less - 2 thousand rubles.

As the experience of our site users shows, anyone can build an energy-efficient home. Moreover, there is no need to equip it with expensive engineering systems such as air recuperators, heat pumps, solar collectors or solar panels. According to a forum member with the nickname Toiss , the main thing is a warm closed circuit, three times superior to modern SNiPs, the absence of cold bridges, warm windows, a well-insulated roof, foundation and walls.

Toiss

Instead of paying 0.5–1 million rubles for gas connection (the price of which is constantly growing), it is better to build an energy-efficient house with an area of up to 200 sq.m. Subject to construction technology and a competent approach, its construction is economically justified for any architectural and structural solutions.

Energy efficiency - basic principles

How and with what to insulate a house is one of the main issues that arise during construction.
And you need to think about this at the design stage. According to Pavel Orlov (forum nickname Smart2305), before economically calculating the justified thickness of the insulation, it is necessary to determine the following initial data, namely:

Area of the planned house;
Area and type of windows;
Façade area;
Area of the foundation and ground floor surfaces;
Ceiling height, or internal volume of the house;
Type of ventilation (natural, forced).

Smart2305

As a basis, we will take a house with an area of 170 sq.m., with a ceiling height of 3 m, and a glazing area of 30 sq.m. m and the area of enclosing structures is 400 sq.m.

The main heat loss in the house occurs through:

Window;
Enclosing structures (roof, walls, foundation);
Ventilation;

When creating a project for an economically balanced house, it is necessary to strive to ensure that heat losses in all three categories are approximately the same, i.e. 33.3% each. In this case, a balance is achieved between additional insulation and the economic benefits of such insulation.

Maximum heat loss occurs through windows. Therefore, when building an energy-efficient house, it is important to “tie” it to the correct place on the site (large windows face south) for the maximum degree of solar insolation. This will reduce heat loss with a large glazing area.

Smart2305

The most difficult thing is to reduce heat loss through windows. The difference between various modern double-glazed windows is quite insignificant and ranges from 70 to 100 W/sq.m.

If the window area is 30 sq. m, and the level of heat loss is 100 W/sq. m, then the heat loss through the windows will be 3000 W.

Because reducing heat loss through windows is the most difficult thing, then when designing the thermal insulation of the building envelope and ventilation system, for balance, you need to strive for the same values - 3000 W.

Hence the total heat loss of the house will be 3000x3 = 9000 W.

If you try to reduce only the heat loss of the enclosing structures, without reducing the heat loss of windows, this will lead to an unreasonable overspending on insulation.

Heat losses through the enclosing structures are equal to the sum of losses through the foundation, walls, and roof.

Smart2305

It is necessary to strive to equalize heat losses through windows with heat losses through building envelopes.

It is also necessary to reduce heat loss associated with ventilation of premises. According to modern standards, it is necessary that the entire volume of air in a living space is changed once an hour. House with an area of 170 sq. m with a ceiling height of 3 m, 500 m3/hour of fresh street air is required.

The volume is calculated by multiplying the area of the premises by the height of the ceilings.

If you ensure the flow of only cold air into the house from the street, then the heat losses will be 16.7x500 = 8350 W. This does not fit into the balance of an energy-efficient house; we cannot say that such a house is energy-saving.

There are two options left:

Reduce air exchange, but this does not meet modern standards for required air exchange;
Reduce heat losses when supplying cold air to the house.

To heat the cold street air entering the house, the installation of forced, supply and exhaust ventilation systems with a recuperator is used. With the help of this device, the heat of the air leaving the street is transferred to the incoming flow. This improves ventilation efficiency.

The efficiency of recuperators is 70-80%. Read our article on how to build an inexpensive and

Smart2305

By installing a forced supply and exhaust ventilation system with a recuperator in the house (from the example above), it will be possible to reduce heat loss to 2500 W. Without a forced supply and exhaust ventilation system with a recuperator, it is impossible to achieve a balance of heat losses in the house.

Economic feasibility of additional insulation

The main indicator of the economic efficiency of additional insulation of a house is the payback period of the insulation system.

Interesting user experience with nickname Andrey A.A , who compared heating costs in the permanent residence mode of an insulated and non-insulated house. For the purity of the experiment, we take the following data as the initial conditions:

heating with main gas;
heat loss through the enclosing structures – 300 kW/h/(sq.m.*year);
the house has a service life of 33 years.

Andrey A.A.

To begin with, I calculated the annual heating costs in permanent residence mode without additional insulation. After my calculations, the cost of heating an uninsulated house of 120 sq.m., with its heat loss of 300 kW/h/(sq.m.*year), amounted to 32 thousand rubles. per year (provided that the price for 1 m3 of gas until 2030 will be 7.5 rubles).

Now let’s calculate how much you can save if you properly insulate your house.

Andrey A.A.

According to my calculations, additional insulation will reduce the heat loss of my home by approximately 1.6 times. Hence, with heating costs equal to 1.1 million rubles for 33 years (32 thousand rubles per year x 33 years), after insulation you can save 1.1-1.1/1.6 = 400 thousand on energy costs . rub.

To get 100% economic benefit from additional insulation, it is necessary that the amount spent on additional insulation does not exceed half the amount saved on energy costs.

Those. for this example, insulation costs should not exceed 200 thousand rubles.

After a year of operation, it turned out that after additional insulation, heat loss decreased not by 1.6, but by 2 times, and all the work done (since the insulation was carried out on our own, and the money was spent only on the purchase of insulation) paid for itself many times over.

Also interesting is the approach to calculating the profitability of additional insulation from a forum member with the nickname mfcn:

– Consider the following hypothetical conditions:

in the house +20°C, outside -5°C;
heating period – 180 days;
house - with a single-layer frame, costing 8,000 rubles/m3, insulated with mineral wool at 1,500 rubles/m3;
installation cost – 1000 rubles/m3 of insulation;
frame pitch – 600 mm, thickness – 50 mm.

Based on these data, a cubic meter of insulation costs 3,000 rubles.

Do you want to make your home energy efficient, but don't know how? We will show you the simplest and surest ways

Nowadays, many people want to reduce the cost of maintaining a home and make it energy efficient. First of all, on the Russian market we are faced with the desire to install warm panoramic windows and additionally insulate the house so as not to freeze in the winter months. Some people prefer to reduce home heating costs, others want to make their home environmentally friendly. Why might this be of interest to you?

Today it is very easy to make your home energy efficient, and you can achieve the energy saving effect using quite accessible tools:

warm energy-saving windows;
additional “preservative” insulation of the house and high-quality warm building materials;
modern heating system, for example based on a heat pump;
photovoltaic system, where the generated energy is used inside the house, including for heating.

Advantages of an energy efficient and passive house

An energy efficient home in itself makes a huge difference to your lifestyle. You don't have to constantly think about what heating mode to set in winter and how to air condition in summer. You don’t need to hide from the scorching sun or, conversely, move to rooms with southern windows in the frosty February blizzard. An energy-efficient house, like a passive one, independently creates a 100% comfortable microclimate, and this process is completely under your control and does not depend on the vagaries of nature.

Energy-saving windows Kaleva

Heating system in an energy efficient house

When talking about modern heating systems in the house, we often use names such as “heat pump”, “warm floor”, “gas boiler”, “electric boiler”. But not all of them relate to energy saving systems. A heat pump provides an exceptional opportunity to make your home energy efficient without spending a lot of money on heating it. At the same time, it is not necessary to install a warm floor; you can also install radiators. And if you connect the heat pump to a photovoltaic system (solar panels), energy will be generated for the pump. With this approach, your home can become independent.

One solar panel produces approximately 2 kW of power. To heat a house of 200 square meters you will need an electric boiler with a capacity of about 20 kW or a heat pump with a nominal consumption of 4 kW. The cost of one solar panel is from 150 thousand to 350 thousand rubles.

Energy-saving windows Kaleva

This option is relevant for regions where there is no gas. In addition, according to Russian Government Decree No. 334, you can only be allocated up to 15 kW of electricity, which is simply not enough to heat a large house.

But it’s not enough to just install a modern heating system and photovoltaic panels. It will be necessary to eliminate “cold bridges” that may appear when using insufficiently high-quality windows and doors. Energy-saving windows will help you in this matter.

Windows in an energy efficient house

Energy-saving windows are very important for the design of an energy-efficient house, since in most cases, with good insulation of the floor, walls and roof, only correctly selected and high-quality installed windows and doors will protect the owner from the appearance of “cold bridges”.

Warm windows can solve the main problem of panoramic glazing by 99%. Today you can put really large windows in your home and still keep it warm.

Energy-saving windows are good in any weather - in winter they do not allow the cold to penetrate inside, and in summer they protect from heat, perfectly balancing energy efficiency and comfort. It is best to choose multifunctional glass for plastic windows. For example, warm windows with a 40 mm double-glazed window and multifunctional iM glass are 96% (!) more efficient than a regular 40 mm double-glazed window! It's all about a layer of silver ions, which allow the glass to work, essentially, like a mirror, remaining perfectly transparent. Using such technologies, you get double protection from cold and heat.

Passive house: why it is better than ordinary house

Different countries have decided to draw the line between an energy-saving and a passive house in different ways, especially with regard to publications in the media. But there is an international standard, and it is determined by the thermal energy utilization coefficient. So, a house with an E index of less than 110 kW*h/m2/year is an ordinary house, less than 70 kW*h/m2/year is energy efficient; and with an indicator of less than 15 kW*h/m 2 /year - passive, that is, practically not consuming energy from the outside.

At the same time, in Europe there is another indicator - EP, which determines the amount of electricity spent on hot water supply, light, electrical appliances and heating. According to this classification, EP less than 0.25 means class A, that is, a passive house; less than 0.5 - class B, economical; and less than 0.75 is class C, and this is an energy-saving house. The remaining indicators determine a standard house, and from 1.51 - the most energy-intensive.

Energy-saving windows Kaleva

First of all, the concept of an energy efficient home is based on selected building materials, including doors, insulation and windows. The latter are an incredibly important element, since it is the most energy-efficient windows and doors that will prevent heat loss. By choosing warm windows, you can install panoramic glazing of any type and even turn your house into something like a glass box. And all this without loss of comfort and warmth!

But it’s not enough to just buy energy-efficient and warm windows. You also need to consider how much solar energy enters the house and whether such windows allow air to pass through. It is important that the SHGC, which is responsible for how much solar energy passes inside, is between 0.4 and 0.5. Windows with an index above 0.5 are suitable only for harsh climates where there is no summer at all (for example in Murmansk), and below 0.4 - only for those places where the summer is very hot (for example in the Krasnodar Territory).

One of the few on the market takes into account all three factors - energy efficiency, light transmission and air exchange. And only this approach can be considered professional.