this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Geothermal has advantages, but air source is getting so good that it's really becoming a niche.
Spending $5K on insulation or heat recovery ventilation will be more effective than spending it on a hole.
I saw an awesome home refurbishment in Montreal, they just went all-in on insulation. The heating was just done with a 500W resistive heating coil, just for the coldest days. They didn't even have a heat pump, except for the heat pump boiler. The heat recovery ventilation did the rest.
What if you already have good insulation? It's already well-known that old houses have shit insulation, so of course it's worth investing money into that if you already need it. But, even heating a new house can be expensive.
If you have good insulation then the weakest link is usually heat lost through ventilation, or an inefficient heating system.
Ground source heat pumps have their place, but it's really a niche. It is possible to cheaply heat a home without them.
What is HRV? I thought it meant a ground loop heat exchanger. I’ve heard about it in the passivhaus model but don’t understand it.
Houses need fresh air and need to expel dirty air.
The dirty air is warm, while the outside fresh air is cold. With heat recovery ventilation, the heat is transferred into the incoming air and the exhaust air becomes cold. This warms up the air in a very efficient manner.
It can also be combined with a heat pump to extract even more heat out of the exhaust.