Read a short article about a 1100 square foot home I believe it was in Minnesota that was superinsulated with R70 in the walls and R80 in the cielings that was using only electric resistant heat in the winters without huge costs.

I have to wonder how much of this is true real world.

He had all the bells and whistles like Triple panes, double wall cellulose, south facing windows and limited the others etc.

That was true of the Urban IL PassiveHouse project too. They used a 1kw element in the HRV as their heating system. The annual electric bill was still only half the US average, despite using electricity for (on-demand) hot water.

If you lower the load sufficiently, the size, cost, and relative importance of the EFFICIENCY of the heating system disappears.

http://www.e-colab.org/ecolab/SmithHouse_files/EnergyDesignUpdate%20Article1.pdf

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/homes/first-us-passive-house-shows-energy-efficiency-can-be-affordable

I can believe R70 walls will deliver similar performance in the cooler climes of MN.

Hi @all,

it isn´t unusual to have a passivhouse with no heating system necessary. we do passiv homes or zero energy homes by using a so called airing system, that exchanges 200 to 300 m³ air in the building per hour. If the home is build with the right materials, an R -Value of beyond 75 is possible and if the blower door test shows positive results, the buildings inner temperatur is between 68f & 72f  even when it is outside 120f or 10f. The airing maschine with hotwater tank is doing the temperatur the makes us feel best in homes. If the air heats up to much  the airexchanger gives the temperatur into the water tank or if warmer room temperatur is necessary the heat comes from the superinsulated water tank.  I did a house with 1850sf and the only bill, the home owner pays is electricity. Monthly bill from the beginning 50€/ month by 16c / kwh.

Passiv homes for sure is a well established technology used in Austria, Germany and Danmark since 1976. I add some pictures for better understanding

Hoowood

It's very possible to have affordable electric resistive heat in cold climates, but it requires the use of a trusted energy modeling tool like PHPP during design (passivehouse planning program) to make sure you will hit your marks.

Are there people around that perform a service like that?  Take a guys building plans, figure in the insulation and windows etc and tell you what you could use for heating etc?

And wonder what types of costs are associated with that type of thing

For PHPP modeling, you would need a passivehouse consultant, and they can be located through PHIUS ( http://www.passivehouse.us/ ) , or contact me directly, I can pass you names. To be clear, you don't need to build a passivehouse to use PHPP, it's just growing a reputation as very accurate software for low energy buildings.

We also use REMdesign / REMrate modeling in house depending on the project, and a local HERS rater ( http://www.resnet.us/directory/raters.aspx ) can produce this for you, and will most likely be less expensive than a PH consultant. However, in my opinion, the results aren't as accurate for low-energy / heavily insulated buildings because they behave differently than lightly insulated structures and have different design issues.

Hi Newbiejohn

A airing system is not more costly than heating systems. The one we use has been build and sold over a few 100.000 times and is the latest technology available. I can provide more informations only per request.  Add some more pictures f or better understanding.

Hoowood

Sure always looking for information can email me at 'bigjones1 at gmail dot com'

Hoowood,

Are the "airing systems" you are referring to available in the US with a UL listing? I am not currently aware of any that have gone through the UL process which would allow them to be installed in most US jurisdictions. If you have one, please post more information...

For others, these systems combine an integrated HRV/ERV & heat pump & domestic hot water in one "magic box". Widely sold in Germany / Austria etc. Example: Zehnder ComfoBox

The bottom picture Hoowood posted shows one piece tubular ductwork run seamlessly to each room from a manifold (no mastic!) Example: ComfoTube

ConfoTube looks so small - how well does the system handle imbalance in the load? for example when we have 20-30 teens over for a halo lan party the room goes from cold to hot pretty fast unless we bump up the fan speed and we have normal sized ducts. Do these comfotubes run at high velocity?

Hello Imoldfella
The system that we use is exchanging about 200m³-300m³ air per hour out of the house and moves fresh air into the house. The heat exchanger is catching the head and gives it either into the water tank or back into the rooms. The control unit is steering to flow as well as the temperatur. Condense water is going into the drainage like the gray water. The temperatur, the humidity and the amount of air will be permanently measured and changed automatically through sensors. People with allergies told us, when we visited them 1-2 years after moving into their passiv home, that the inhouse inviroment is giving them a new quality of live, even when it is only at home.

We have a location in Quebec, Canada and will open the next in Georgia.