An house without heating and comfortable, how is this possible? Yet this is the promise of new houses built today in the South West as in all French regions. Insulation:, equipment, airtightness, design, everything is studied so that a new house consumes as little energy as possible for its heating. THE builder Sic houses explains to you the main principles implemented on the new constructions.
What is a house without heating?
The houses without heating, it exists, this is what we call the passive houses. A passive house costs only between 10 to 25 euros per month in heating. But to guarantee these performances, it is necessary to strictly control the renewal of air. No question of opening the windows in cold weather. Closer to the traditional conception that we have of a house, the houses built today under the influence of RE2020, are not always passive houses, but the performance is very close. These economical houses are rated A on theenergy label, because the energy expenditure related to heating are reduced to a minimum. Performance is based on architectural design rigorous and bioclimatic, over-insulation, efficient glazing, airtightness and ventilation control.
To find out how to choose the best builder for an eco-friendly home, see our article on eco-friendly home builders.
A bioclimatic house
An bioclimatic house takes advantage of the free energy resources available to the house. The first of these is the sun. There bioclimatic house is thus cleverly oriented to bring the sun inside the house. The living rooms are generally facing south, with large bay windows so as to take advantage of every ray of sunshine. This ecological house heats itself without the need to turn up the heating. It is thus bathed in natural light, which also limits the excessive use of artificial lighting. There bioclimatic house, really rhymes with comfort and energy savings !
A compact house
Another principle of bioclimatism, it is the compactness of the house. Again, the builder pays particular attention to the design of the house. The principle is to limit wasting surfaces. These are the surfaces in contact with the exterior: the exterior walls and the roof. The most compact form is the two-storey house, with very few dropouts. The architecture of new houses is completely overhauled.
A very well insulated house
As we have seen, a well-oriented house warms up thanks to the sun's rays. It also benefits from body heat or produced by electrical equipment in the house. You might as well conserve this heat. This is the role of'thermal insulation. At Sic houses, it is an insulation most often made of glass wool, from the inside. Wood construction or brick masonry construction, new houses are very well insulated to keep the heat in the house as best as possible. Walls and roof benefit from significant thicknesses of insulation. Designed and studied down to the smallest detail, the new house, unlike a renovation, does not experience any thermal bridges.
High-performance glazing
of great bay windowss letting in light could give rise to fears of significant energy loss when it is cold, but the glazing installed today in the builder houses are particularly effective. Double or triple glazing thermal, they thus have very high thermal coefficients. Aluminium, wood or PVC, the uprights and the frame are also well thermally insulated to avoid any cold spots.
An airtight house
The new detached houses hunt for parasitic infiltration and air leaks. Indeed, a bad airtightness is synonymous with heat loss and overconsumption of energy. So all the new houses must undergo an airtightness test orblower, before handing over the keys to their future owner. Insulation, walls, roof, junction of walls, electrical outlets, passage of ducts, all the small errors that can be made during construction and which can reduce the airtightness of the house are thus revealed by this test, then corrected, if necessary.
Controlled ventilation
In these houses where drafts are banned, it is nevertheless necessary to ensure the renewal of air in the house. Eliminating indoor air pollutants, evacuating humidity, renewing the air while limiting heat loss is the role of a controlled mechanical ventilation ou CMV. The latter controls the air inlet and outlet flow rates and adapts its operation to needs. In new house, so-called humidity-controlled single-flow CMVs are generally installed, which adapt their operation according to the humidity level of the house. The so-called VMCs double-flow carrying out a heat exchange between the incoming air and the outgoing air. This equipment allows, among other things, to go from one low energy house to a passive house. However, it is more restrictive in terms of maintenance since you have to remember to change and clean the filters very regularly otherwise the quality of the indoor air will deteriorate. Finally, other VMCs can be controlled by different sensors (CO2 level, pollutants, etc.), as part of a home automation installation. The VMC is an essential piece of equipment that ensures the quality of the air in the home.
To better understand how VMC works, read the Maisons Sic article: how to ensure indoor air quality in a new home
Heating that consumes little
Although the heating rarely comes on, it is nevertheless necessary during the coldest hours. Efficient heating will limit the bill. THE heat pumps are high-performance electrical equipment that consumes little energy to power the central heating circuit. The soft heat is diffused for the greatest comfort of the inhabitants through the radiators, the heated floor or the heated ceiling. A wood heating is also an economical and ecological solution to save on this item. In these houses where heat production is optimized, a single flame heats the whole house.
To learn more about this subject, read our article: New house in the South West: what is comfortable heating?
La house without heating or passive is therefore a particularly efficient residence. There house RE2020 is close in terms of energy consumption, but is easier to live with on a daily basis. This sharp reduction in energy costs is the main advantage of new houses built today, even more so in this context of energy scarcity.
