Just gonna drop useful info-sources i vouch for: UpisNotJump, Hbomberguy, Our Changing Climate, Climate-Town, Some More News, Second Thought, those are the best for Climate-Change and the Water-Issues.
Since you mentioned you’re working out what your content identity will be, I’d like you to know I’ve really enjoyed your last few releases. I’m both a sustainable city development and green energy wonk who moved with my family to Munich to work at an e-mobility company…so I probably represent a very niche interest pool, but I’d fully support seeing you develop in this direction.
Yeah we were extremely lucky that we benefitted from the program before it expired. We secured the loan a year before the house was even finished and we could move in.
Great breakdown! I just got turned onto your channel by American Guy in Germany. It's nice to watch other American families on their journey figuring out how it works in this beautiful country they call Deutschland. Looking forward to diving in and seeing what other cool videos you've published. Thanks for your hard work!
You have reached a level of journalistic quality with your expertise and fact based information that is on par with programs in german public broadcasting e.g. WISO (ZDF).
We just missed the KfW 40+ financial aid in the beginning of the year, which was pretty frustrating. Currently building new homes barely gets any support by the government, even renovating old houses has experienced big cuts in financial support just recently. It’s tricky these days
Ah man that is really frustrating! Do you know if they will offer some kind of grandfather clause to let you apply later on if more funding becomes available? Or is there only a small window of time to apply?
I don't know whether this will work out and keeps you in compliance. But what if you build a sloppy house but provide all the improvements can be made afterwards? So you save when building the house and then when you go about upgrading it can benefit from programs that might be available. And evene if they don't come about you can still upgrade to standard.
@@V100-e5q nope. Not gonna work. Houses need to comply with a pretty high standard in order to even being allowed to get built in the first place. Also, to apply for renovating funding, the house needs to be older than 20/25 years (not sure about the exact age)
I am very glad that the founding of KfW using the Marshall Plan is mentioned in your video, as it was a brilliant move by the government at the time, who, contrary to the usual use of the funds in the Marshall Plan countries, first founded a credit institution. Help for self-help was the successful motto and led to the fact that KfW still exists today.
Wieder einmal ein ebenso schönes wie gut recherchiertes Video.Wir haben unser rund 25 Jahre altes Haus und unsere Mobilität energietechnisch komplett umgestellt. Wir kommen nun ganz ohne fossile Brennstoffe und Holz aus. Wir haben PV auf dem Haus- und Carportdach inklusive einen Batteriespeicher installiert, Gasheizung durch eine Luft-Wärmepumpe Einheit ersetzt sowie beide Verbrennerautos verkauft und durch ein E-Auto ersetzt. Für den Heizungsumbau haben wir eine KFW Förderung von 33% Kostenerstattung bekommen. Finanziell war das damals trotz allem eine dumme Entscheidung, was für mich aber keine Rolle spielte, Ich wollte einfach das Richtig tun und keine Öl, Gas oder dergleichen mehr verbrennen. Aus heutiger Sicht haben wir aber scheinbar alles richtig gemacht. Förderung ist nicht alles. Der Umbau geht noch weiter. Es werden noch Fenster und Haustür durch neuere und besser isoliertes Varianten ersetzt, PV erweitert und alle Heizkörper durch größerer ersetzt, um die Wärmepumpe in effizientere Betriebspunkte betreiben zu können. Die aktuelle Gaskrise ist schlimm, trifft uns aber vergleichsweise eher wenig. Wir sind nicht autark und brauchen noch recht viel Strom aus dem Netz. Aber das werden wir hoffentlich noch ein bisschen reduzieren können.
Hi Ashton, nice match, I just had a discussion with a friend how to use the millions of e-cars we will have soon as storage supporting the net. I live in Schleswig-Holstein, and according to a government website we already produce 160 percent of the electricity we use in our state, so we are net-exporters, mostly of wind energy. However, ever more often wind mills have to be taken down, because at the time of production, there is not enough demand, while there is not enough wind at times of peak demand. And some additional completely useless info: The former name of the KfW is "Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau". = Reconstruction Bank. Still using the Marshall Funds after more then 75 years, well, that sounds sustainable! Have a nice weekend.
I am afraid that thanks to Bavarians who do not want electricity masts near their homes which is in parts understandable the surplus elecricity from Northern Germany cannot be transported via the grid to Southern Germany. So it is NOT a question of demand but transport. Hopefully the present energy crisis will solve that !
Some smaller UK/Scottish islands use Atlantic winds to generate their electricity as it is too expensive to connect them to any grid. They started taking H2 out of sea water, when there is an excess of electricity, and store the H2 in tanks so as to convert that into electricity later on. As to using cars as e-cache - that probably would not work in my small country to the west of you, in the next years or decade, as making this work may require an upgrade to the local electricity infrastructure. Most homes still use natural gas for heating and cooking ranges and that needs to become electrical - even heat-pumps will be a challenge, I guess. Charging a car battery from a home connection? As long as a home does not need the grid to make "green" electricity work, that would be fine, but this is not the dominant thinking. Not saying it is impossible, but today the local e-infrastructure is frequently getting overloaded from all the solar panels that got added by home owners. In these cases, the grid sends a signal to home solar inverters to stop rendering electricity to the grid. And earn-back times for home owners extend quite a lot.
@@jpdj2715 The charm with e-cars being used as storage is that they are de-centralized. There is not that one big power line and storage facility where all the enrgy has to pass through. So if you neighbor has an electric car you and he can fill it u before the electrons travel through the grid. And if you watch tv or go into the elctric sauna you take the energy from the car. The grid might not even notice what you are consuming or producing. In simple terms and simplified circumstances.
@@V100-e5q - that's all true and I am well aware of that, but the market and consumers - where I live - are totally not set up to keep solar/wind local to their homes, even when it technically is not difficult.
@@jpdj2715 Perhaps my explanation was not complete. But the power will go to the grid anyways. It has the benefit of equalizing loads. Between you and your neighbor as well as Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria. What I wanted to show is that the distribution of solar here and there and e-cars here and there spread out over the countryside does not overload the network as when using huge power generating plants. There are only small currents that go here and there. So the idea is not you and your neighbor pooling up. But when you produce power and your neighbor needs it there is that small power exchange going through the grid at your places. It does not get fed to Bavaria and back. So like you going to your local market to buy veggies from your neighbor farmer. But he will still sell parts to Aldi and you will still buy some goods at Lidl.
In the Czech Republic we have got such programmes as well. Goverment gives money if you make your houses greener. Buy and install for example well insulated windows, green sources of energy like heat pumps, solar panels, photovoltaic panels, recuperation systemdoors, walls andbetter. But to get it you have to pay it yourself first, secondly products you buy have to be certified and approved for the programme and installed by certified and approved companies.
Yes, but technically both the US dollar and the Euro are simply just printed money. At least in regards to the US, it has been over 50 years since the greenback was no longer convertible into bullion and the dollar became a free-floating currency, measurable only by comparing it to other world currencies.
@@TypeAshton Yes, but this is not the point. You cannot create money out of thin air. No matter what you declare as money, it has to be the same amount as the quantity of goods and services. Otherwise it will collapse sooner or later.
Yes, but defining subsidies which are "sustainable" is inherently subjective. As an American, I always find it curious that many of my fellow countrymen will not think twice at the fact that the US government alone spends $20 billion every year on direct fossil fuel subsidies - but spending the same amount to subsidize every day people to afford renewable energy solutions is somehow "unsustainable socialism".
@@TypeAshton I totally agree. I didn`t want to say the subsidies for well insulated houses are bad. Quite the reverse. But then they have to cut on other stuff.
We installed in beginning of march this year on our "Reihenhaus " 5,7kwp of Photovoltaik in addition to an 5,7kw Battery. Since installing we only bought 40kwh from grid! Before we have a consomption about 4000kwh per year. This year we will end in about 900kwh buying (january and february without PV). Next year will about 500kwh a year. And what is great? Since this year there is 0% VAT for the complete bill and the income from selling to the provider is no more tax on
Great video again. Thank you. I installed Photovoltaic panels back in 2015 but as I paid cash there was no KfW loan advantage. The purchase price was, however, reduced as the vendor could apply for a grant. I did not install a method of storing the energy as the options were too expensive at the time. I sell back to the grid for almost half of what buying costs. 🙁 Over the year, however, I use only about one third of the energy I produce.🙂 On a far more pessimistic note, for which I apologise, I return to the first part of your video where you deal with "Climate Change" ( a more harmless term for the real 'Global Warming'). I have worked in the space business for over 40 years now, mainly earth observation (Meteorology/Climatology), and IMHO we are passed the point of return and achieving the goals set out at the various COP meetings. The last one being COP26 in Scotland. We are now in a phase, not of rescue, but of damage control!
Sadly, I worry about this very subject too. We are going to blow past the 1.5C warming threshold much, much faster than we ever expected and it is terrifying.
I guess the positive note is that people seem to becoming more acutely aware of the consequences. Record heat and droughts in the last years have become noticeable even for the layman. Unless you live in a complete concrete desert, you can actually notice plants struggling in many regions. We couldn't stop it, but maybe at least our damage control efforts will be better? Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt.
I am in the US, but some changes i would like to see are 1) kinda lime kfw..rebates or incentives to build houses with solar already installed. 2) Add to code that all new construction should have e-vehicle charging planned and wired for even in charger is not installed. This would be for single and multi-family. 3) like #2, I think pre-wiring for on-site storage ( batteries) should be added to building code. I think these three alone would not add much cost to building ( couple hundred for 2&3) it would make it a lot easier for then to be added and drive the ev technology adoption. I have loved your videos. I know yall are still growing, but you and city beautiful I bet could do some interesting videos.
This was a huge challenge for us to understand and it is something that is constantly changing. I'm happy to provide a little insight and first hand experience if possible. Really glad you enjoyed the video.
I switched from a car with Diesel engine to a BEV 2 years ago. Right now we are exchanging our heating system from natural gas to heat pump. We installed a ventilation system in june, and during the next 5 years we will improve the thermal insulation of facade, basement ceiling (both planned 2023) and roof (planned 2026) of our house (built 1982) - I want to reach at least KfW85 standard. At the same time as the roof renovation we plan to replace our actual photovoltaic system (6,8 kWp built in 2005) by a larger one (as large as possible). For the exchange of the heating system and the insulation we applied for a subsidy by BAFA (program called BEG, "Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude"). It's similar to KfW, but you get a subsidy instead of a loan - and you can split it up into several steps.
Great video, Ashton. We benefited from these grants to build a 40+, wood-panel prefabricated row house around 5 years ago. This is a particularly nice model that I hope to see replicated more and more as it gets away from the "expensive detached house only" mindset of making this kind of choice. It is also a great community of engaged neighbors who each have virtually identical set ups including warm air systems, photovoltaik, significant battery storage (part of the KfW requirement, and energy produced largely in our own home cabled to our own garage at the end of the row to charge (and supplement battery storage at a lower rate when the sun is shining) our electric car. That said, all this was quite an investment despite the grants and still at the "bleeding edge" - but worth it.
KfW was a brilliant move of the German government after WWII. By today's standards, between 1948 and 1952, the US provided $142 billion for Europe's reconstruction. Great Britain got the largest share of it: 24,75% - and spent it. France was next in line: 20,18% - they spent it too. Germany was #4 with 10,16% - and this money is still available. Instead of spending the money, KfW was used to grant cheap loans that could help finance the comeback of Germany's post-war economy. That worked, because German economy did not have to start from scratch after WWII (as many believe). They mostly needed a financial start-up aid. Isn't it fascinating that the Black Forest Family can benefit from ERP more than 70 years after ERP?
The Marshall Plan funds have been paid back long time ago. What has remained are the ways to finance things by the current government. So by us as taxpayers.
@@V100-e5q Can't be that expensive for us tax payers right now - KfW made 2.2 billion EUR profit in 2021. And the years before it wasn't loosing money either. Profits were at least 500 million EUR up to 2 billion.
Although these elements of housing are of no immediate relevance for me as a renter (and personal reasons mean this will never change), it‘s fascinating to hear about the developments in this country and to see how much is being done. Not that it‘s enough, but it‘s more than you find in a lot of countries. Thank you for your work!
Just gonna drop useful info-sources i vouch for: UpisNotJump, Hbomberguy, Our Changing Climate, Climate-Town, Some More News, Second Thought, those are the best for Climate-Change and the Water-Issues.
I m german (69y) did a lot to reduce my needs of energy with my house. Honestly - I still dont know, how much energy is defined for a EEG 100 house needs in numbers of kWh/m² a. As I bought my terraced end house, 200m² heated area including heated rooms in the cellar (built 1982, bought 1994) I needed 35.000kWh/a natural gas for heating and hot water and additional 4500kWh/a electricity. After insulating the house, chanching windows and changing the gas fired boiler to a brine heat pump, today I need 1850kWh/a electricity for heating, hot water and passiv cooling. OK changed as well lightning to LED and all other consumers (refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, etc.) in A++/A+++ appliances. Additional - my photovoltaic system produce ~5500kWh/a electricity and I need ~5000kWh/a and dont have/need a car as pensioner in cologne, and 99,9% of my transport, I do by pedelec or on foot.
Hi Folks. I really like your videos. Good info, fun to watch. IMHO a good insight into the differences of the US and Germany. Not to forget the main protagonists: A charming lady, a cool guy and an adorable kid. I live quite near you. 40 Minutes by car from the center of Freiburg. I have a tip for you: Pfifferdaj in Ribeauville near Colmar. It is on 03. September 2022. The first time I saw it, my mind was blowen away. 😃 You'll find videos about former years events on youtube! BTW. They also have a great christmas market. 😉 Have a good time!
I am curious about the technical implications of these new standards. Which new technology is used when building German houses to reach these goals? And how does this compare to the USA?
An efficiency house in Germany is made up of 2 criteria: How high is the total energy requirement of the property? And how good is the thermal insulation of the building envelope? This is done with the primary energy requirement values and transmission heat loss specifically. However they give you options to choose from to reach those goals in terms of technology. If you can use translate on Google, this website (in German) gives a good overview of how you can use different systems and technology in tandem to reach the standards for a KfW 55 (which is what we use in our house). That is what is actually kind of cool about the program. They don't say "you have to use X heating system", but rather than your house has to meet a benchmark efficiency Standard which is why you have to have a post occupancy Evaluation by a professional to officially give you the certificate That your home passes the standards.
I hope that Germany puts in place more programs for solar and heat pumps. (even if we just installed a heat pump). We moved here about a year ago and purchased an old home near Wiesbaden and are looking for some energy efficient upgrades.
10 years ago i bought my first house with a standard bank and also KfW loan. Now i bought my second home without kfw because it was cheaper. I was lucky to renew the loan for the first house in early 2020 (2 years before they ran out in 2022) for an interest rate of 0.89% and 0.95%. That was the best decision i made in the last years 😂 in 2020 i also got a photovoltaik system with storage on the first house. The second house already had one. Now im investing in renewable heating and cooling systems for both houses with subsidies from the Bafa (ministry of economy). They're also very good (up to 45% back if you switch from oil to heat pump, from mid of august reduced to 35%). I got 35% subsidies because i only have a, still very efficient, gas heater.
wow, i found time again to fully enjoy the video. very good, informative, and again it shows how each country confront the climate problems.. greenwashing and actual change are in both countrys, but to get supported when you want to build your green house, that is just nice :) and i read some good comments on this video already, there is nothing to add :) i will watch any kind of video from your channel, cause so far every topic was well researched, not biased, just plain facts, and that is what i love :) and i am looking forward for jonathans bike videos. mit freundlichen grüßen der freundliche internet andy von neben an :)
Thanks for the informative video about KfW. We are about to replace our old oil heater with a pellet heater. I reached out to a energy advisor to apply for a KfW loan. It went pretty good, we got the loan commitment and the KfW pays 50% of the bill. The advisor costed us about 300 € wich was totally worth it. That helps a lot.
Photovoltaik and EV perfectly fit together if you can charge the car in the daytime and if the PV is large enough. There is a 4,8 kWp installation on my roof and it's just enough to charge the car with excess current. Should not be less than that or you have to take power from the grid. It's also a good feeling if you can run the washer or coffee machine with homemade power.
Hi, this is my first comment on your channel... continuing in German now. Ich habe mir in der letzten Zeit ziemlich viele Videos von euch angeschaut, immer sehr unterhaltsam. Besonders das Video aus Ostfriesland hat mir sehr gefallen, mein Vater ist von da oben... Also, zum Tee eingeladen zu werden von echten OSTFRIESEN... Das ist schon was besonderes, wirklich! Vorhin habe ich das Video gesehen, in dem du überlegst, was die beste Art wäre, Jack bilingual zu erziehen. Sehr schön. Ich würde sagen, lass den Dingen ihren Lauf, Jack wird wunderbar beide Sprachen perfekt sprechen, da bin ich sicher. Falls es euch interessiert, euer Akzent ist immer dann verschwunden, wenn ihr Kurzantworten gebt, zum Beispiel auf dem Freiburger Markt oder als ihr "are you smarter than a fifth grader" gespielt habt. Sowas wie "Danke, schönes Wochenende" oder "ich nehme Nummer 4" kommt in meinem deutschen Ohr so an, dass ich wirklich gar nicht heraushören kann, dass ihr Amerikaner seid. I hope you get what I'm saying. All the best to you three. Ich freue mich auf weitere Videos von euch!!
We use a combination of solar panels and a wood-burning stove with integrated water pipes to heat our warm water and use less pellets. This will be a vital component of our heating system this coming winter as pellet prices have skyrocketed (from 200€/t to almost 800€/t).
I am not sure I can answer any of the questions you had specifically for us, but in general, here in the US, the HOAs are in the way of implementing solar. Their regulations, statues, convents tend to be typically copied one from the other, and so when for some reason, the first one of them forbid solar, all the other followed in line, and it would be urgently required to define some legislation in at least those states that are leaning blue, that statues that forbid roof or side solar panels are not permissible, just to get the private market in the US rolling. I would expect that everybody who redoes their roof shingles, would then subsequently consider implementing solar, and over 10 years or so this would make a huge difference, imo. And new construction could be started that way directly. As it stands, we are all living in these suburbs with huge south or west facing slanted roofs, and no solar. it is ridiculous. What else would I have liked to hear in the video or a follow on video to this one: Besides solar panels, what was done to your house to achieve this 55% efficiency? That is quite a steep drop for just 10 + years of new construction technology. What are the new technologies that are now pushing this number even further down? Also, what energy bills ( in consumption) due you experience across the year, and how do they compare to numbers for a typical US home of similar size? I would mostly compare energy consumption rather than price, because then you just focus on the technology and construction difference rather than all the policies that influence the final amount on our bills. Finally, I had seen this video a few weeks ago and did not have time to watch it then, and just right now, it came back up in my feed, and so I am glad that I caught up with it. But I am seeing that the number of views is quite low, and you obviously have great and rather unique content here, and you put a ton of work into this, so it deserves more. I think this is a video that should have cross-over potential over to many 'green' and 'solar' TH-cam watchers, who don't care about family or lifestyle vlogs, but rather look for information only. But I don't think they get to see this, so that becomes an issue of title, search term, SEO type work to try to get this video or similar ones in front of a few more eyes. The second part is, that for such a video to keep such other viewer's attention, get to the point right away, so not much family specific history on that video, because otherwise such folks click on, before you get to all your valuable points of information. Most of us others very much enjoy the other topics and follow all your family stories of course, so for other videos just keep doing what you are doing, it is working well, just for these cross-over videos, I would change my strategy a bit. Sustainability, energy efficiency, environmental public policy, housing or residential construction, solar,....etc, would all be good angles to try to attract more viewers, should you plan a few more videos with this type of focus. If this is just a one off, it probably does not matter much. But I would love to have more people here in the US see this, especially because here in the US the first problem is that we have to overcome the disbelief that something can actually be done about all this. Unfortunately, there is a lot of shoulder-shrugging going on here, the thought is that nothing can be done to save us from global warming, so we might as well do nothing at all. Videos like yours show a path forward. Reducing energy consumption by 45 % over 13 years and completely altering new construction standards along the way, that is quite an achievement. Of course there is the huge stock of existing houses, which are not built to this standard yet, but as roof replacements or other maintenance projects are undertaken, things will gradually improve, now that builders are familiar with the techniques. It is a great video to demonstrate all this.
Unser Vermieter macht sich auch gerade schlau nicht nur über Solarpanele auf dem Dach sondern auch über eine vorgehängte Grünfassade! ich als angehende Architektin finde das super!
You keep providing us with great videos and thank you for taking us on your adventures and teaching us something. I hope they TH-cam algorithm catches on n your channel gets a trillion subscribers
Hello from Finland! There's a new concept for energystorage in Finland from Cactos Oy. It uses used Tesla batteries and they lease them for use 400€/month. 100kWh storage with 50kWh output. I'm not involved with the company or anything else for that matter. Just regular finnish homeowner that still uses oil.
That is about three times the cost of my energy before I had P (Germany). Our meter shows about 30-40 kWh per day, less than 5 kWh of which are during the night.
About the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau has its roots in the demand for housing after 1945 and the European Recovery Programme (colloquially called Marshallplan after the US-Foreign Secretary in those days). It is in the hands of the public and the credits it gives must be used for the building economy, not for do-it-yourself homebuilders and restorers.
So glad to see the Netherlands is not the only country that has made finding subsidies and such as clear as mud..hahahaha.. Here we also have a bit of a patchwork of local and government programs and such but most seem aimed at reducing gas usage and the need for electricity generated by fossil fuel. Anyways great video, feels like they are becoming so professional they need to be shown at documentary festivals and such!!
Just gonna drop useful info-sources i vouch for: UpIsNotJump, Hbomberguy, Climate-Town, Some More News, Second Thought! Useful AND i promise theyre not gloomy.
I am currently in the process of building a KfW40+ home and hope to move by January. My experience with the programs is kind of mixed so far. Since we started planning out home building there have been at least 3 different regimes by the KfW. Transitions between those programs has not been well designed and changes are made with little to no notice period. This makes it hard to plan. Also many programs come with arbitrary and strange restrictions. For example, the Netzdienliche Speicher program you mentioned, limits feeding power to the grid to 50% of you installed capacity. A number that is likely exceeded on a nice sunny day even with the home battery. Many other programs like the Baukindergeld or Z15 have hard cuts on income instead of a smooth transition and honestly, some income limits are so low that you should not build if you qualify. And overall, I think there is too much money paid out as incentives. Building a KfW40+ home qualifies for more than 40k of subsidies, that is just crazy
Wonderful informative video again. Not your fault: The first part of the video (about solar + EV) made me get upset. Everything around that theme makes me as an electrical engineer explode. (I already drive an EV) - The subsidy for charging points includes that the charging point is "Netzdienlich" - it should react to some needs from the grid. BUT there are NO standards to realize that. We have some 872 "Netzbetreiber" - the corps that run the local power grid. EVERY of them might (or may not) have their own rules and regulations about how to interact with such a device. So the subsidy simply depended on the charging point must have a reprogrammable device inside that might implement a standard that might come some time - I'm raging about that. - energy storage again to my first point, there is no common protocol how the network should command the battery that there is an urgent need for energy in the grind and it should jump in. - the big energy provider are afraid of the discussion - because the privat owner of the - expensive - batteries would ask for a decent price for the energy to jump in a shortage - what would be complete reasonable for me.
aquaTurm Hotel in Radolfzell at Lake Constance The building supplies itself with 100% renewable energy: Hydrothermics photovoltaics Solar thermal energy Wind power
Unfortunately, the promotion for grid-friendly PV battery-storage in B-W already run out about 1 year ago. Also the current Wallbox-bonus in B-W is linked to the purchase of an electric vehicle. Basically, most of the funding has expired over the last year, except local subsidies and of course the Einspeisevergütung (feed-in tariff), which is now a little bit higher. But fyi: the Stadtwerke Waldkirch (local energy suppplier) is offering a bonus for a rooftop PV-system up to 450 € for their customers. So at least that 🙂 Btw, we should get our offer from our electrician (for pv, battery + wallbox) this week, if you are also interested ;-) Regards, Niels
Hi Niels! Thank you so much for the info! We are would love to get more info about the cost of everything together once you, Nina and the rest of the neighbors get your quote. I think we will probably go for it next year, so I'm sure the price will rise a little bit it would be a wonderful "ballpark" for us. Unfortunately the Stadtwerke Waldkirch wasn't taking on any new customers so we had to go with a different energy supplier. Still all "green" energy but a bit of a bummer that we couldn't go with the local option.
... and the energy you need to produce hydrogen you can get from renewable energies like solar or wind. And last not least in cases of car accidents its is very complicated to blow out the fire of e-cars.
@@sandralison7584 Because all the companies are used to capacity for month, if not years, they cant follow the orders. And on the other side there are problems in delivering items, sometimes there are no collectors available, ore other stuff is not available right now.
there must first be a cutie from america so that i can learn more or be interested in things i have hardly thought about before! I've always been waiting for the next Sunday, no matter what the topic is. ashton and jonathan you guys are great! btw has something happened in terms of the berlin archive and grandfather's citizenship? greetings to your men! Michael/Hanover
I've never once considered a thumbnail when clicking on a video. I read the title to see if THAT interests me. A 50th picture of the same person isn't going to make or break it.
Hello Ashton, hello Jonathan , happy Sunday! Thank you for sharing all the Tipps to get the credits and other benefits when building an eco-friendly home in Germany. Me personally the are not helping because I'm in the process of Solling my house. Reason it's much to big for one Person, currently I'm Livingstone alone in this house after my mother died. I was lucky to find a nice little appartement heated with Fernwärme. Sorry for that off-topic. Best regards Ralf
Hi Ralf! Happy Sunday to you too! That's an exciting time nonetheless. I hope you're move and transition is smooth and you settle into your new space with relative ease. As someone who just finished unpacking the last box from our move on June, I can say with near certainty... They will have to burry me in the backyard. I am never moving again 😂. Haha.
Hi Ashton I'm moving in September but I still startet the process of getting rid of things that I will not bring to my new flat. So after moving to your new home you should make a comparisson "Ashton before and after moving" By the wax, all the best in your new home, be always happy and healthy!! Ralf
Why is battery storage so expensive compared to electric cars? For comparison, you can get a Volkswagen ID4 with a 77 kWh battery for € 47,000. That's € 610 per kWh, instead of € 1100, and it includes an entire car.
Whilst there is merit in building new sustainable homes, each country has a huge stock of homes that are products of their past. Your home is already out of date with the current modern standards and that happens year in, year out as the standards grow leaving behind previous iterations of standard compliant homes. Sadly, most homes built to whatever standard be that 1922 or 2022 will be difficult to upgrade and no account is taken for that particularly in modern homes where there is the most notable changes. What have you got in your new home to make it future proof and can it be readily adapted to improve its energy use? We have three homes, two for rent and our own home, one was built in 1910, one in 1968 and our home in 1953/1998. The first two will, if the legislation is passed, have to be upgraded from Band E to Band C on the Energy Performance Certificate but that will cost ~£50,000 and the other ~£75,000 even though both have energy saving features. Both costs are unsustainable and if we add the financing charges to the rent just to maintain the pitiful return we currently have the properties will become unaffordable. One property is therefore on the market for sale. Our own home was improved to the then current standards applicable at each stage at that time from 38 years ago when we moved in, but are now below any form of what may be called an efficient home by todays (but not tomorrow's) standard. It is now very difficult to improve it further without gutting the interior entirely and starting again, the thought of doing what would be necessary is cringe worthy. We can't even add PVs because the only appropriate roof is full of roof windows and is shaded by a substantial walnut tree that is doing its bit to absorb carbon.
Germany, please give us some found to build a house too! to many refugees, help us now! I need to move NOW, Germany, help us! Wir schaffen das????????????
I will also be curious how these increases in construction costs will be ultimately passed down to the tenant... Although theoretically they would then benefit from energy savings. Still a very interesting development that we will need to watch and whether or not there will be differing requirements for a row house with 4 apartments versus an apartment building with 20+ units.
It's interesting to see how different countries are subsidizing a home/building towards a better usage of electricity. Where I reside they help (financially) on the insulation of those, thus reducing heating/cooling and water consumption but these renovation are to try to meet the new construction requirements of new builds. But there are no incentives pertaining to solar, as 100% of our electricity is hydro powered and governmental owned, therefore our cost per kWh is extremely cheap for a Western country (solar cost more than traditional electricity even if you factor it over a 30 yr period). In the past the incentives were focused on the change to electricity heating versus oil and gas, but there has been a push in the last 10 years to convert to a passive heating and cooling (geothermal) system as the new "standard".
From the combination of your name and hydro I would guess, Quebec, and not Norway? - if you have abundant hydro power then electrical energy is cheap indeed. Not here. Germany has
@@Henning_Rech Wow!! you guessed right. I was wondering why the incentives given in your country aren't in tandem with geothermal or heat pump? To help reduce the direct need of conventional heating and cooling. (by converting old water radiator [radiant] some name it hydronic system or by incorporating in floor heating/cooling). I took the time to read up on the "Building Energy Act" GEG and for a northern Country like us, I was surprised to see how similar your government ratings needed to be achieved in your country as those have been the norm since 2014 here. Here are a few examples (This is for the detached residential building in U value): Roof DE U=.20 QC=.20 Exterior walls DE=.35 QC= .40 Windows DE=1.3 QC minimum requirement is 2 panes of glass, avg is 3 and best is 4 with a exterior brown reflection. But the credit is not on the windows but rather it is a calculated as air changes per hour (ACH) [air tightness] as the rating or grade of a window/door will limit heat loss but the proper or improper insulation around must be taken in consideration thus the need for this test. As a mandatory blower door testing to be conducted before drywall installation as it is unrealistic to try to improve a home’s thermal insulation value without ensuring its airtightness. Energy savings cannot be achieved without a true airtight barrier. We also have included a credit for any drain water heat recovery (DWHR). This pipe is a simple technology to save on energy used to heat water. This pipe takes advantage of the warm water flowing down the drains to preheat the water going into the hot water tank. Preheating the water reduces the amount of energy needed to heat the water to the set temperature If you want information on the last, here's a link www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/oee/files/pdf/equipment/WaterHeaterGuide_e.pdf
Over the border in Czechia, you can get subsidies for solar systems (50%) and heat pumps. However, the subsidies do not work at the moment, because providers of those systems are out of stock of components as well as out of people to do the job. So you can pay, let's say for 10KWh system, €10 000,- if you get it yourself, or you can get it via provider for €20 000,- and get €10 000,- subsidy. BUT, in the latter case, you'll wait 9 months or more. But you won't get it cheaper :-(. Subsidies are failing in this regard - it would be more effective, if the state spent the money on prioritizing deliveries of components to the market and training of new skilled workers. That's why I opted for getting the system without subsidies, but I got it "immediately", without any bureaucracy and waiting.
Same in Germany. The 1100 EUR/kWh for storage is the price with installation, and you will have to wait a long time. If you just buy the battery unit and connect it yourself to a grid inverter this will half the cost, and you can do it now. If you are a bit more adventurous (and skilled), buy the cells and necessary electronics from the manufacturer and assemble them yourself (not for everyone), you can do it for 200 EUR/kWh.
@@Henning_Rech Yes. Of course I paid an electrician to do the electrical work due to legal reasons and to have peace in my mind. But that's small fraction of what it would cost via a company selling it as "delivery". I then had two options - to buy it as a "components" matching them together myself or buy it as a "kit" or "system". I choose a system, because telhe components were proven to work together, one get a manual and technical help line and little bit lmore complex warranty. It costs only little bit more than components themselves, cca 10% extra.
@@Henning_Rech we get subsidy for the whole system. One can get subsidy even for a solar system without battery. But it generally applies to batteries too. These days you can get a "server rack" type LiFePo4 battery, which is trivial to connect and basically maintenance - less, so I guess you wouldn't need an electrician, if you already have a solar system and you're just replacing your battery or just connecting it to inverter. By the way I got my 4.8 KWh LiFePo4 battery for about €2000,-, so it comes at €416,-/KWh delivered, but not installed.
I am curious as to what changes are made to your house to go from a KfW70 to a KfW55 and what sort of cost increase there is IE if it is 2 CM more wall thickness and slightly better quality boiler with a total increase of say 10K Euro and you get 15K "free" then awesome but if it was requiring 50K of stored battery AND PV solar cell install as the top 40+ requires then the upfront is WAY higher then the rebate and making it "harder" to reach as an extension at what point does the higher KfW get to the point it is UN AFFORDABLE by Average people as I imagine at this point a KfW 40 is NOT a lot more expensive then a 55
There are examples how you can reach highest standards. But it comes down to more outer wall insulation, better insulated windows and door, a central ventilation, a solar system, a heatpump. For 12k you can get either better walls or better windows or better rooftop insulation.
As regards electric powered cars, I've yet to fully believe that they are as 'green' as they make out. When you take into account the environmental impacts of obtaining the metals that are required to manufacture the batteries. Digging up the ground for the metal ore, then processing the metals to extract from the ore (emissions, use of resources to run the processes, habitat loss etc etc. Then the construction of the battery manufacturing facilities - again emissions, resource use etc. Disposal costs of the car batteries at the end of their useful lives - toxic metals etc Sure the electricity can be produced via wind turbines etc. From what I can see the generation of hydrogen via electrolysis of water seems to be a more green technology. Again electricity via wind turbines. The combustion of hydrogen does not lead to green house gas emissions. Less harmful waste when recycling at the end of a vehicle's life. Hydrogen does have some technical challenges in terms of transporting it, it leaks easily, flammability risks etc.
The recycling of old batteries is going to be big business in the future. It really is high grade ore to feed back into the manufacturing of new batteries. Or will eventually become a closed loop.
I think it’s funny how everyone always brings up the environmental impact that’s happening to harvest materials for batteries when it’s about EVs but simply accepts the damage that has been done (and is still made) which is required for fossil fuels. (Not to mention that the damage is no problem when it’s about Smartphone batteries…) Not saying that it should not be criticized but just pointing out the double standard. Hydrogen cars are going to be a solution for big trucks, trains on not electrified tracks etc. but they will most likely always lose / be more expensive than normal EVs. Simply because they need more parts, a (smaller sized) battery as well, and creating and burning hydrogen is very inefficient compared to charging a battery.
@@NightDevilMacGeneral Who's ignoring the damage from fossil fuel? That why the great efforts are now being made to move past fossil fuel. It seems to be an odd statement you have made there. Does it matter so much if burning hydrogen isn't that efficient - if it is less environmentally damaging than digging up the earth for metal ore and the environmental cost of smelting and processing the metal from the ore. A very energy in tensive process, using plenty of nasty chemicals etc Then there is the land use/loss of habitat if the ore mines will be open cast mines. What about the locals who will likely have to move location, loss of habitat for animals etc.
you are missing one aspect of electric vehicles today, especially in Europe. Fossil fuels are getting less and less available due to the war between russia and ukraine, and as such much more expensive. you can't run an ICE car without fuel. period. an electric car that runs on power generated with coal or natural gas today, will be able to run on power generated without coal or natural gas tomorrow. That is called future proofing.
@@uliwehner You can get hydrogen from the electrolysis of water, the electricity from wind turbines to power the electrolysis equipment. Future proof as well
Your information on Housing in the US & Germany is very interesting and informative, however; I miss the "Black Forest FAMILY!! Personally I don't believe it's possible to live without the use of Fossil Fuel. It's necessary to support the Electric Auto, for one example. I'd like to see the Family once again. Just my opinion, however; you asked. Best Wishes.
We have family friends who have done it...but you have to WANT to do it. There is certainly less of a financial incentive to install solar in the States. The price per KwH for energy is a fraction of that in Germany and there aren't as many widespread programs to incentivize energy efficient homes.
Some of our favorite places: "Kreuzeck", "Gasthaus Bauerntafel auf St.Barbara" and "Das Kartoffelhaus" are some of our favorite German dishes. We also love "Casa Espanola" and "Yepa Yepa" (lunch) for some spicy spanish/latin flavors. For wine, the "Alte Wache Freiburg" is a bit toursit-y (but for a good reason, because it is nice), also, Weber's Weinstube is also great. ❤️❤️
How effective are so-called "green" energy technologies in Germany? My understanding, is that apart from strong winds along the North Sea coast, and parts of the Rhine valley where there are hot springs, Germany does not have a good wind, solar or geothermal resource base, and that most of the potential hydro-electric sites have already been developed.
Um, then you might want to change your information sources. Yesterday 46.5 % of german power production came from renewables. 15 % comes from wind turbines, a third of this is produced offshore atm. There are plans to build offshore wind farms with a capacity ten times the current capacity, as most is produced onshore now. Solar will be extended further, too. Also the use of biogas will be increased.
E. g. we now produce more electricity from biogaz than from hydro power or nuclear. But PV and wind plants will have to be multiplied in the coming years for decarbonization. With only a few % of the land area we can become completely energy neutral.
Germany's biggest problem for all of this, is well Germany itself. The endless and often pointless amount of bureaucracy they put in the way of anyone wanting to go green is frustrating. My solar panels only cover 60% of my roof? Why because the government would have buried me in paperwork for going over 10kw. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing even then and now the solution is just worse. My car charger that isn't a car charger because an official car charger (with government money) would have cost more and been harder to install. Seriously don't understand how they don't see it.
Hi... Your vcast was a little German Centric, but still had interesting 🤔 content. Kind of off the subject, do many people outright buy their homes? For cash? If you have a moment, I would be very interested. Thanks :-) JDF
I am not sure really. I know that property is frequently inherited and passed down. In our area homes are extremely expensive (similar to San Francisco in the USA). To buy a property outright in cash would take a lot of capital.
I was once studying abroad in the US as a German. Theres so many differences, in any aspect of life. I really didn't like most food in the US, it was either to greasy or too sweat. Or both. Anyhow I had a blast in the US. I hope you enjoy y'all's time here cheers
I love the idea of powering your own car with your own solar panels, but to do that you already have to be kinda wealthy to afford the whole deal in the first place. Also, im not sold on EVs as a whole with their Lithium Batterys and potential...was it child labor? in the mines for them, and no real plan on how to recycle or dispose of them after their rather short lifespan. Its not ready for wide spread use, due to the carbon emissions already present in their manufacture. IMHO anyway. Also you cant really get enough charging spaces to most places, especially in cities. Or you have to spend a fairly long time sitting next to a public one waiting for your car to charge or something. What do you think about those issues ?
There are a lot of good reasons against EVs (especially as they will not provide any incentives for a changed mobility behavior), but neither child labor nor recycability or durability are good reasons. The child labor issue is not with lithium mines, but with mines for cobalt, which comes primarily from the Congo. As cobalt demand grows, cobalt mining also becomes more professional and there's less child labor involved. But actually there is not only less and less cobalt used in modern batteries for EVs, but also cobalt has always been used especially in the production of colors, but also the desulfurization for fuel. Child labor has always been a very emotional argument, to take attention away from the rather dirty process of the fossil fuel industry. Regarding the lifetime and recyclability, electric vehicles also achieve superior results already. Modern EV batteries easily reach lifetime ranges of more than 300.000, 400.000 and sometimes even 1.000.000 km already, after which they are usually still good enough for stationary storage purposes before they can be recycled with up to 95% of material. The batteries of electric vehicles today easily outlife any combustion engine driven car already. Any BEV will easily surpase any amount of initial CO₂ footprint, within a five figure number of kilometers - with predominant PV charging even sooner. There is no real scenario, where any new combustion engine driven car can be more environmentally friendly than a BEV. Future city planning should restrict car ownership in general to people who provide their own parking (either by having a parking space on their own ground, or by renting such a parking space), which is not only good for change of traffic within urban areas, but is also much fairer regarding the costs of car ownership and the public subsidization. In such a scenario, there is absolutely no issue to create and organize the charging infrastructure for EVs.
@@patrickhanft To be fair i havent looked into it extensively, only surface level at best, because i could never afford one either way. Let alone charge it at home. Not in the foreseeable future at any rate. If there is to be a marked change in traffic behaviour, there needs to be a drastic improvement of public transport, especially in rural areas but cities too. Now that i could use the 9€ ticket a bit the last few months, its nice. But if i need twice as long *per way* to and from a place i might take a car anyway. I dont want to waste that kind of time personally. I was mostly watching those 2 TEDx videos a few months ago that got me to look into these things at least a little bit : th-cam.com/video/S1E8SQde5rk/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/N-yALPEpV4w/w-d-xo.html&t
@@IIIJG52 I watched the first TED talk to try to understand your argument. And while there's generally a lot I can agree with Graham Conway on - for example that you need to compare all emissions over the life of the vehicle, I see also a lot of issues. The premise Conway starts with, is that CO₂ levels of BEVs are not measured. And while this may be true for the required "CO₂ per km" value that car manufactures have to provide, it is absolutely not true regarding numerous comparisons that had been made between BEV and conventional combustion engine cars over the years. In fact, when he argues about the CO₂ of power production, that is obviously relevant, there are websites that tell you the average CO₂ grams per kWh value for the current and average grid power production for every country. It is very easy to find those numbers and this can and is done by people who made serious comparisons. Due to the really efficient nature of electric vehicles - or shall I say unefficient nature of internal combustion engines - even with power from coal plants, you still are more efficient regarding grams CO₂ per km using most BEVs in comparison to a gas powered car (apart from the "charging from the sun" topic). So the impression, Graham Conway tries to make, that these comparisons are not really done, is not true. But the actual problem is, that Conway also does not a good job with his comparisons. For example, he just assumes, lifetime of ICE and BEV are just the same. But this is nothing you should just assume. Quite the contrary, you have far more movable parts within an ICE car, meaning that there is a far lower mean time between failures just by statistics. It is a system with high vibrations and a high degree of maintenance and repairs needed. Such a car will reach the moment where it is not economically viable far sooner than a BEV, which is less complicated in its system and has far less opportunity to "break". You should assume a bigger lifetime of an BEV in comparison, but Graham doesn't do that. Apart from that I'll argue that Conway's numbers regarding the amount of CO₂ footprint needed for the battery, is based on rather old numbers that do not reflect the highly evolving industry around battery production and how they were for economic reasons able to reduce a fair amount of the energy needed to produce such batteries. Also, for ressource purposes, the battery cell chemistry is highly evolving to materials, that are far easier and less energy intensive to obtain. The claim, we would be decades away from that is just not true. Also his claim that you need to compare a 400 mile battery just for the same convenience is cheap and just not true. Because no, you don't need this range (especially outside of North America) as charging infrastructure becomes far better and the battery size of BEVs has just stopped to grow. For purely economic reasons. But the point that I don't like most in his video is the following: Production of fuels for internal combustion engines is also highly energy intensive. This number is to be said to be 1,60 kWh per one litre of gas, or about 10 kWh per the amount of fuel you need to drive your car 100km. That is more than half of what an average BEV would need to charge for this distance, but this power consumption is also not considered for the CO₂ output of any ICE car. You need to compare all emissions over the lifetime of a vehicle. Graham Conway does not do that, he just arranges the number, until the BEV looks worse than it is. He wants to sell internal combustion engines, because this is the hand that feeds him. His propagation of e-fuels tells, that he does not really want to do a clear comparison, because e-fuels will never, never, never be anywhere good enough to be burned in an internal combustion engine. Their efficiency is far to bad for that - and with it their remaining CO₂ footprint. There is no clean e-fuel. There's something better than a BEV, but that is not to drive an hybrid, which is much more complex than both of the other cars. It is to not have a car at all. And yes, that should be our main priority. But for everything else, there's just not any reason not to have any new car being electric. The future is less cars. But the remaining cars will all be electric. Not only because they are cleaner and more comfortable, but because people won't accept the terrible noise of everything else anymore.
The huge battery for the electric cars put out a lot of emissions to manufacture. It’s much higher than an ICE car. Smaller as in nonSuv vehicles as a hybrid are much better. The battery can be much smaller making less battery waste, and the overall lifespan of the vehicle will be a lot longer. I don’t want to replace my car every 7 to 10 years. I drive a 2008 Toyota Sienna that is very reliable despite being older.
Thanks!! Jonathan and I were just saying yesterday how thankful we were thank Jack is back to his goofy happy self. Our house feels a lot more carefree 🤪 I would love to cover that in a future video. I think after this video we are going to take a bit of a break from housing, however. We have some fun videos planned over the next few weeks, including some with our families from the States and we hope to share their perspective on life in Germany. ☺️
From my understanding the KFW wants got focus more of their funding for renovation of existing buildings and away from new construction.. and their funding is precipitated on reaching a level of efficiency, not on any specific technology - allowing you to select the system that you like as long as it helps you reach the benchmark . I can't speak from personal experience on this, but it would be worthwhile talking to a KfW funding Consultant to see what kinds of funding options you would have.
The KfW 40+ basically is very close to a passivhaus. Retrofitting to a better energy standard: there where fundings for this. Not sure if they still exist.
@@peter_meyer im guessing the 40 stands for 40kWh/sqare meter/annum. Pasivehaus is 15kWh/sqare meter/annum which is a value low enough to eliminate dedicated heating system. So the Passivhaus is nearly 3 times better. Unless 40 stands for something else.
@@peter_meyer I watched it on a phone. If those values were given on some of the tables I just couldn't see them. Will you be so kind and explain then what 40 stands for exactly?
Wow, this is very interesting. I'm just thinking that the 'average' citizen doesn't have the capacity/ability to work out how they can take advantage of the possibilities on offer. You are obviously in tune with the situation and it seems that it should be easier to access the kickbacks from the government without the professional knowledge that you both have through your advanced education.
It is also very , very confusing a things seem to phase out CONSTANTLY. If an article was written just a few months ago it might be out of date. Another on here commented that they used a special advisor for the KfW, so that might be a good option to have someone also help you with all of the paperwork.
I feel like EV subsidies totally overlook all disadvantages of cars other than their emissions (traffic, accidents, transportation efficiency, etc). This is not even considering the fact that EVs are not totally zero carbon! :(
I have a question Regarding your facial expressions. Is it natural or did you learn it in a debate Club or something? Sorry weird question however I am struggling with Social Anxiety Disorder since childhood an now I am trying to learn the subleties of Human comunication.😅
So dear Friends This is for Jonathan: In germany we have a saying: Behind every good man is a strong woman. So you did the right choice... A german compliment 😍😍😊😊❤❤ Yepp i am a womanizer 😂😂😂😂
I am not convinced of electric cars at all because they would result in big environmental problems. Acid and lead would have to be recicled (if possible). To my mind the much better solution are hydrogen-cars. Instead of exhaust gases water would run out of an tailpipe.
We bought a plot in spring and the architect is preparing the Baugenehmigung right now. Of course, the construction companies are super interested in KfW 40 programs because the houses are full of expensive technology that needs to be serviced and eventually replaced. I want my house to have as little technology as possible so we won't even do KfW 55. Also the KfW 40 is a printing machine of money for the energy expert for the certificates. Or do you think that your 4k certificate was more than half a days's work?
Our energy certification only cost 1600 euros. Still not cheap by any means, but considering that certificate gets us 18,000 off of our loan, it was worth it.
I was also not a fan of kfw and instead got bafa subsidy. I got less money though, because my installation was already cheap due to DIY. But 16k for 10kwp solar and heatpump was totally fine as i didn't have to support certificate printer leeches. Around every subsidy is a business model.
question, i've been told that if you have solar panels on your rooftop and the house catches up a fire, the firefighters won't fight the fire because it is too dangerous for them to put it out because of the electricity involved, anybody else heard that? or is that an urban legend? or maybe it's because those solar panels are made in china only nowadays?
I think that may be a bit of an urban legend. I was just reading an article here (www.treehugger.com/the-roof-is-on-fire-do-solar-panels-hinder-firefighters-4866586) that brings up a lot of challenges, including roof access and properly venting a fire when solar panels are present. But it seems the biggest challenge is a lack of standardized training and best practices when fires are present.
They have to fight the fire. It is just a bit more dangerous bc the DC-current is still flowing on the cables from the PV-System. So they have to be more careful
As with recycling, building more green is not a political issue in Germany, it is just a normal part of life and a necessity. I wish, it wasn't such a political hot button issue in the U.S. To me, it's idiotic and counter productive.
PV, Wärmepumpen und Speicher Steigern den Wert des Gebäudes. Damit könnte der Vermieter in zukunft mehr verdienen. Aber warum Zukunft und Wirtschaft gemeinsam sehen wenn man eh nur aufwand hat stimmts ?
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 87 วันนี้!! คู่เอก "ก้องชัย vs โชคปรีชา"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YN6e7HVnekw/mqdefault.jpg)
The first 1,000 people to use the link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/blackforestfamily08221
Just gonna drop useful info-sources i vouch for: UpisNotJump, Hbomberguy, Our Changing Climate, Climate-Town, Some More News, Second Thought, those are the best for Climate-Change and the Water-Issues.
Well done! The Federal Ministry for Environment should hire you as Communication Consultant.
the Clean German DIESEL skum?
Why support Allah and Putin?
Germans never learned from the Jews, they keep going on!
@@urlauburlaub2222 Germany and France running the EU.
I'm only 30 seconds into the video and it feels like a professional documentary! Great work
Thanks so much!!
They are always well researched and presented. Its quite nice. Great work indeed.
Im guessing their professinal backgrounds help in this.
Genau das habe ich auch gedacht.
Believe it or not, but even for me as a german your vids are really interessting and informative. Thx for the Input. :D
I'm really glad you enjoyed the video and found it helpful. These requirements are very difficult to keep up with and they change so frequently.
How do I subscribe to your channel
Since you mentioned you’re working out what your content identity will be, I’d like you to know I’ve really enjoyed your last few releases. I’m both a sustainable city development and green energy wonk who moved with my family to Munich to work at an e-mobility company…so I probably represent a very niche interest pool, but I’d fully support seeing you develop in this direction.
The KfW has one huge problem, they usually run out of money in mid-year, that is June or July. So you better apply for a loan one year in advance.
Yeah we were extremely lucky that we benefitted from the program before it expired. We secured the loan a year before the house was even finished and we could move in.
Great breakdown! I just got turned onto your channel by American Guy in Germany. It's nice to watch other American families on their journey figuring out how it works in this beautiful country they call Deutschland. Looking forward to diving in and seeing what other cool videos you've published. Thanks for your hard work!
So glad you enjoyed the video!! Thanks so much for watching.
You have reached a level of journalistic quality with your expertise and fact based information that is on par with programs in german public broadcasting e.g. WISO (ZDF).
We just missed the KfW 40+ financial aid in the beginning of the year, which was pretty frustrating. Currently building new homes barely gets any support by the government, even renovating old houses has experienced big cuts in financial support just recently.
It’s tricky these days
Ah man that is really frustrating! Do you know if they will offer some kind of grandfather clause to let you apply later on if more funding becomes available? Or is there only a small window of time to apply?
@@TypeAshton there won’t be new funding for what we are planning. By far the most of home fundings will be allocated towards renovating old homes
I don't know whether this will work out and keeps you in compliance. But what if you build a sloppy house but provide all the improvements can be made afterwards? So you save when building the house and then when you go about upgrading it can benefit from programs that might be available. And evene if they don't come about you can still upgrade to standard.
@@V100-e5q nope. Not gonna work. Houses need to comply with a pretty high standard in order to even being allowed to get built in the first place. Also, to apply for renovating funding, the house needs to be older than 20/25 years (not sure about the exact age)
I am very glad that the founding of KfW using the Marshall Plan is mentioned in your video, as it was a brilliant move by the government at the time, who, contrary to the usual use of the funds in the Marshall Plan countries, first founded a credit institution. Help for self-help was the successful motto and led to the fact that KfW still exists today.
I liked your easy going videos more than the complicated technical ones...and I live here...
Wieder einmal ein ebenso schönes wie gut recherchiertes Video.Wir haben unser rund 25 Jahre altes Haus und unsere Mobilität energietechnisch komplett umgestellt. Wir kommen nun ganz ohne fossile Brennstoffe und Holz aus. Wir haben PV auf dem Haus- und Carportdach inklusive einen Batteriespeicher installiert, Gasheizung durch eine Luft-Wärmepumpe Einheit ersetzt sowie beide Verbrennerautos verkauft und durch ein E-Auto ersetzt. Für den Heizungsumbau haben wir eine KFW Förderung von 33% Kostenerstattung bekommen. Finanziell war das damals trotz allem eine dumme Entscheidung, was für mich aber keine Rolle spielte, Ich wollte einfach das Richtig tun und keine Öl, Gas oder dergleichen mehr verbrennen. Aus heutiger Sicht haben wir aber scheinbar alles richtig gemacht. Förderung ist nicht alles. Der Umbau geht noch weiter. Es werden noch Fenster und Haustür durch neuere und besser isoliertes Varianten ersetzt, PV erweitert und alle Heizkörper durch größerer ersetzt, um die Wärmepumpe in effizientere Betriebspunkte betreiben zu können. Die aktuelle Gaskrise ist schlimm, trifft uns aber vergleichsweise eher wenig. Wir sind nicht autark und brauchen noch recht viel Strom aus dem Netz. Aber das werden wir hoffentlich noch ein bisschen reduzieren können.
Hi Ashton, nice match, I just had a discussion with a friend how to use the millions of e-cars we will have soon as storage supporting the net. I live in Schleswig-Holstein, and according to a government website we already produce 160 percent of the electricity we use in our state, so we are net-exporters, mostly of wind energy. However, ever more often wind mills have to be taken down, because at the time of production, there is not enough demand, while there is not enough wind at times of peak demand.
And some additional completely useless info: The former name of the KfW is "Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau". = Reconstruction Bank. Still using the Marshall Funds after more then 75 years, well, that sounds sustainable!
Have a nice weekend.
I am afraid that thanks to Bavarians who do not want electricity masts near their homes which is in parts understandable the surplus elecricity from Northern Germany cannot be transported via the grid to Southern Germany.
So it is NOT a question of demand but transport.
Hopefully the present energy crisis will solve that !
Some smaller UK/Scottish islands use Atlantic winds to generate their electricity as it is too expensive to connect them to any grid. They started taking H2 out of sea water, when there is an excess of electricity, and store the H2 in tanks so as to convert that into electricity later on.
As to using cars as e-cache - that probably would not work in my small country to the west of you, in the next years or decade, as making this work may require an upgrade to the local electricity infrastructure. Most homes still use natural gas for heating and cooking ranges and that needs to become electrical - even heat-pumps will be a challenge, I guess. Charging a car battery from a home connection? As long as a home does not need the grid to make "green" electricity work, that would be fine, but this is not the dominant thinking.
Not saying it is impossible, but today the local e-infrastructure is frequently getting overloaded from all the solar panels that got added by home owners. In these cases, the grid sends a signal to home solar inverters to stop rendering electricity to the grid.
And earn-back times for home owners extend quite a lot.
@@jpdj2715 The charm with e-cars being used as storage is that they are de-centralized. There is not that one big power line and storage facility where all the enrgy has to pass through. So if you neighbor has an electric car you and he can fill it u before the electrons travel through the grid. And if you watch tv or go into the elctric sauna you take the energy from the car. The grid might not even notice what you are consuming or producing. In simple terms and simplified circumstances.
@@V100-e5q - that's all true and I am well aware of that, but the market and consumers - where I live - are totally not set up to keep solar/wind local to their homes, even when it technically is not difficult.
@@jpdj2715 Perhaps my explanation was not complete. But the power will go to the grid anyways. It has the benefit of equalizing loads. Between you and your neighbor as well as Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria. What I wanted to show is that the distribution of solar here and there and e-cars here and there spread out over the countryside does not overload the network as when using huge power generating plants. There are only small currents that go here and there. So the idea is not you and your neighbor pooling up. But when you produce power and your neighbor needs it there is that small power exchange going through the grid at your places. It does not get fed to Bavaria and back. So like you going to your local market to buy veggies from your neighbor farmer. But he will still sell parts to Aldi and you will still buy some goods at Lidl.
In the Czech Republic we have got such programmes as well. Goverment gives money if you make your houses greener. Buy and install for example well insulated windows, green sources of energy like heat pumps, solar panels, photovoltaic panels, recuperation systemdoors, walls andbetter. But to get it you have to pay it yourself first, secondly products you buy have to be certified and approved for the programme and installed by certified and approved companies.
Subsidies with printed money. Sustainable.
Yes, but technically both the US dollar and the Euro are simply just printed money. At least in regards to the US, it has been over 50 years since the greenback was no longer convertible into bullion and the dollar became a free-floating currency, measurable only by comparing it to other world currencies.
@@TypeAshton Yes, but this is not the point. You cannot create money out of thin air. No matter what you declare as money, it has to be the same amount as the quantity of goods and services. Otherwise it will collapse sooner or later.
Yes, but defining subsidies which are "sustainable" is inherently subjective. As an American, I always find it curious that many of my fellow countrymen will not think twice at the fact that the US government alone spends $20 billion every year on direct fossil fuel subsidies - but spending the same amount to subsidize every day people to afford renewable energy solutions is somehow "unsustainable socialism".
@@TypeAshton I totally agree. I didn`t want to say the subsidies for well insulated houses are bad. Quite the reverse. But then they have to cut on other stuff.
We installed in beginning of march this year on our "Reihenhaus " 5,7kwp of Photovoltaik in addition to an 5,7kw Battery.
Since installing we only bought 40kwh from grid!
Before we have a consomption about 4000kwh per year. This year we will end in about 900kwh buying (january and february without PV). Next year will about 500kwh a year.
And what is great? Since this year there is 0% VAT for the complete bill and the income from selling to the provider is no more tax on
Great video again. Thank you.
I installed Photovoltaic panels back in 2015 but as I paid cash there was no KfW loan advantage. The purchase price was, however, reduced as the vendor could apply for a grant. I did not install a method of storing the energy as the options were too expensive at the time. I sell back to the grid for almost half of what buying costs. 🙁 Over the year, however, I use only about one third of the energy I produce.🙂
On a far more pessimistic note, for which I apologise, I return to the first part of your video where you deal with "Climate Change" ( a more harmless term for the real 'Global Warming').
I have worked in the space business for over 40 years now, mainly earth observation (Meteorology/Climatology), and IMHO we are passed the point of return and achieving the goals set out at the various COP meetings. The last one being COP26 in Scotland.
We are now in a phase, not of rescue, but of damage control!
Sadly, I worry about this very subject too. We are going to blow past the 1.5C warming threshold much, much faster than we ever expected and it is terrifying.
I guess the positive note is that people seem to becoming more acutely aware of the consequences. Record heat and droughts in the last years have become noticeable even for the layman. Unless you live in a complete concrete desert, you can actually notice plants struggling in many regions.
We couldn't stop it, but maybe at least our damage control efforts will be better? Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt.
I am in the US, but some changes i would like to see are
1) kinda lime kfw..rebates or incentives to build houses with solar already installed.
2) Add to code that all new construction should have e-vehicle charging planned and wired for even in charger is not installed. This would be for single and multi-family.
3) like #2, I think pre-wiring for on-site storage ( batteries) should be added to building code.
I think these three alone would not add much cost to building ( couple hundred for 2&3) it would make it a lot easier for then to be added and drive the ev technology adoption.
I have loved your videos. I know yall are still growing, but you and city beautiful I bet could do some interesting videos.
Thank you so much for sharing all those advantages with us. Even I as a German did not know about all of those.
This was a huge challenge for us to understand and it is something that is constantly changing. I'm happy to provide a little insight and first hand experience if possible. Really glad you enjoyed the video.
I switched from a car with Diesel engine to a BEV 2 years ago. Right now we are exchanging our heating system from natural gas to heat pump. We installed a ventilation system in june, and during the next 5 years we will improve the thermal insulation of facade, basement ceiling (both planned 2023) and roof (planned 2026) of our house (built 1982) - I want to reach at least KfW85 standard. At the same time as the roof renovation we plan to replace our actual photovoltaic system (6,8 kWp built in 2005) by a larger one (as large as possible). For the exchange of the heating system and the insulation we applied for a subsidy by BAFA (program called BEG, "Bundesförderung für effiziente Gebäude"). It's similar to KfW, but you get a subsidy instead of a loan - and you can split it up into several steps.
Danke Frau Doktor für das informative Video .
Thank you doctor for the informative video.
Great video, Ashton. We benefited from these grants to build a 40+, wood-panel prefabricated row house around 5 years ago. This is a particularly nice model that I hope to see replicated more and more as it gets away from the "expensive detached house only" mindset of making this kind of choice. It is also a great community of engaged neighbors who each have virtually identical set ups including warm air systems, photovoltaik, significant battery storage (part of the KfW requirement, and energy produced largely in our own home cabled to our own garage at the end of the row to charge (and supplement battery storage at a lower rate when the sun is shining) our electric car. That said, all this was quite an investment despite the grants and still at the "bleeding edge" - but worth it.
KfW was a brilliant move of the German government after WWII. By today's standards, between 1948 and 1952, the US provided $142 billion for Europe's reconstruction. Great Britain got the largest share of it: 24,75% - and spent it. France was next in line: 20,18% - they spent it too. Germany was #4 with 10,16% - and this money is still available.
Instead of spending the money, KfW was used to grant cheap loans that could help finance the comeback of Germany's post-war economy. That worked, because German economy did not have to start from scratch after WWII (as many believe). They mostly needed a financial start-up aid.
Isn't it fascinating that the Black Forest Family can benefit from ERP more than 70 years after ERP?
Ah, the famous Marshall Plan :) !
Btw you were faster than me as I wanted to post that as well.
The Marshall Plan funds have been paid back long time ago. What has remained are the ways to finance things by the current government. So by us as taxpayers.
@@V100-e5q Can't be that expensive for us tax payers right now - KfW made 2.2 billion EUR profit in 2021. And the years before it wasn't loosing money either. Profits were at least 500 million EUR up to 2 billion.
Although these elements of housing are of no immediate relevance for me as a renter (and personal reasons mean this will never change), it‘s fascinating to hear about the developments in this country and to see how much is being done. Not that it‘s enough, but it‘s more than you find in a lot of countries. Thank you for your work!
Just gonna drop useful info-sources i vouch for:
UpisNotJump, Hbomberguy, Our Changing Climate, Climate-Town, Some More News, Second Thought, those are the best for Climate-Change and the Water-Issues.
I m german (69y) did a lot to reduce my needs of energy with my house.
Honestly - I still dont know, how much energy is defined for a EEG 100 house needs in numbers of kWh/m² a.
As I bought my terraced end house, 200m² heated area including heated rooms in the cellar (built 1982, bought 1994) I needed 35.000kWh/a natural gas for heating and hot water and additional 4500kWh/a electricity.
After insulating the house, chanching windows and changing the gas fired boiler to a brine heat pump, today I need 1850kWh/a electricity for heating, hot water and passiv cooling.
OK changed as well lightning to LED and all other consumers (refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, etc.) in A++/A+++ appliances. Additional - my photovoltaic system produce ~5500kWh/a electricity and I need ~5000kWh/a and dont have/need a car as pensioner in cologne, and 99,9% of my transport, I do by pedelec or on foot.
Hi Folks. I really like your videos.
Good info, fun to watch.
IMHO a good insight into the differences of the US and Germany.
Not to forget the main protagonists:
A charming lady, a cool guy and an adorable kid.
I live quite near you. 40 Minutes by car from the center of Freiburg.
I have a tip for you: Pfifferdaj in Ribeauville near Colmar.
It is on 03. September 2022.
The first time I saw it, my mind was blowen away. 😃
You'll find videos about former years events on youtube!
BTW. They also have a great christmas market. 😉
Have a good time!
I am curious about the technical implications of these new standards. Which new technology is used when building German houses to reach these goals? And how does this compare to the USA?
An efficiency house in Germany is made up of 2 criteria: How high is the total energy requirement of the property? And how good is the thermal insulation of the building envelope? This is done with the primary energy requirement values and transmission heat loss specifically.
However they give you options to choose from to reach those goals in terms of technology. If you can use translate on Google, this website (in German) gives a good overview of how you can use different systems and technology in tandem to reach the standards for a KfW 55 (which is what we use in our house).
That is what is actually kind of cool about the program. They don't say "you have to use X heating system", but rather than your house has to meet a benchmark efficiency Standard which is why you have to have a post occupancy Evaluation by a professional to officially give you the certificate That your home passes the standards.
I hope that Germany puts in place more programs for solar and heat pumps. (even if we just installed a heat pump). We moved here about a year ago and purchased an old home near Wiesbaden and are looking for some energy efficient upgrades.
10 years ago i bought my first house with a standard bank and also KfW loan. Now i bought my second home without kfw because it was cheaper. I was lucky to renew the loan for the first house in early 2020 (2 years before they ran out in 2022) for an interest rate of 0.89% and 0.95%. That was the best decision i made in the last years 😂 in 2020 i also got a photovoltaik system with storage on the first house. The second house already had one. Now im investing in renewable heating and cooling systems for both houses with subsidies from the Bafa (ministry of economy). They're also very good (up to 45% back if you switch from oil to heat pump, from mid of august reduced to 35%). I got 35% subsidies because i only have a, still very efficient, gas heater.
That's amazing!
Love the information. Love your channel 👍
thank you so, so much.
This is so great! I wish the US would do so much more, we aren't great about this stuff.
wow, i found time again to fully enjoy the video. very good, informative, and again it shows how each country confront the climate problems.. greenwashing and actual change are in both countrys, but to get supported when you want to build your green house, that is just nice :) and i read some good comments on this video already, there is nothing to add :)
i will watch any kind of video from your channel, cause so far every topic was well researched, not biased, just plain facts, and that is what i love :) and i am looking forward for jonathans bike videos.
mit freundlichen grüßen
der freundliche internet andy von neben an :)
Thanks for the informative video about KfW. We are about to replace our old oil heater with a pellet heater. I reached out to a energy advisor to apply for a KfW loan. It went pretty good, we got the loan commitment and the KfW pays 50% of the bill. The advisor costed us about 300 € wich was totally worth it. That helps a lot.
Yes!! this is great advice. We also used a mortgage advisor who helped us organize the KfW loans as well. Extremely valuable.
Photovoltaik and EV perfectly fit together if you can charge the car in the daytime and if the PV is large enough. There is a 4,8 kWp installation on my roof and it's just enough to charge the car with excess current. Should not be less than that or you have to take power from the grid. It's also a good feeling if you can run the washer or coffee machine with homemade power.
Just not in Winter. Then you have to pray that the wind will blow and you get external power.
@@smftrsddvjiou6443 In Winter I got enough PV power for the base load of the house.
@@gerbre1 So 4,8 kWp means in Winter about 1 kW ?
@@smftrsddvjiou6443 About 120W, 60W for the refrigerator and 60W for the rest.
had a good laugh at 5:07 ... 😂 ... well it kind of started a few seconds earlier ... 😜
Hi, this is my first comment on your channel... continuing in German now.
Ich habe mir in der letzten Zeit ziemlich viele Videos von euch angeschaut, immer sehr unterhaltsam. Besonders das Video aus Ostfriesland hat mir sehr gefallen, mein Vater ist von da oben... Also, zum Tee eingeladen zu werden von echten OSTFRIESEN... Das ist schon was besonderes, wirklich!
Vorhin habe ich das Video gesehen, in dem du überlegst, was die beste Art wäre, Jack bilingual zu erziehen. Sehr schön. Ich würde sagen, lass den Dingen ihren Lauf, Jack wird wunderbar beide Sprachen perfekt sprechen, da bin ich sicher.
Falls es euch interessiert, euer Akzent ist immer dann verschwunden, wenn ihr Kurzantworten gebt, zum Beispiel auf dem Freiburger Markt oder als ihr "are you smarter than a fifth grader" gespielt habt. Sowas wie "Danke, schönes Wochenende" oder "ich nehme Nummer 4" kommt in meinem deutschen Ohr so an, dass ich wirklich gar nicht heraushören kann, dass ihr Amerikaner seid.
I hope you get what I'm saying. All the best to you three.
Ich freue mich auf weitere Videos von euch!!
We use a combination of solar panels and a wood-burning stove with integrated water pipes to heat our warm water and use less pellets. This will be a vital component of our heating system this coming winter as pellet prices have skyrocketed (from 200€/t to almost 800€/t).
I love the way Tom Scott puts all the mistakes he made in Videos, with corrections, on his homepage in a list :)
*What a wonderful sweet dream*
I am not sure I can answer any of the questions you had specifically for us, but in general, here in the US, the HOAs are in the way of implementing solar. Their regulations, statues, convents tend to be typically copied one from the other, and so when for some reason, the first one of them forbid solar, all the other followed in line, and it would be urgently required to define some legislation in at least those states that are leaning blue, that statues that forbid roof or side solar panels are not permissible, just to get the private market in the US rolling. I would expect that everybody who redoes their roof shingles, would then subsequently consider implementing solar, and over 10 years or so this would make a huge difference, imo. And new construction could be started that way directly. As it stands, we are all living in these suburbs with huge south or west facing slanted roofs, and no solar. it is ridiculous.
What else would I have liked to hear in the video or a follow on video to this one: Besides solar panels, what was done to your house to achieve this 55% efficiency? That is quite a steep drop for just 10 + years of new construction technology. What are the new technologies that are now pushing this number even further down? Also, what energy bills ( in consumption) due you experience across the year, and how do they compare to numbers for a typical US home of similar size? I would mostly compare energy consumption rather than price, because then you just focus on the technology and construction difference rather than all the policies that influence the final amount on our bills.
Finally, I had seen this video a few weeks ago and did not have time to watch it then, and just right now, it came back up in my feed, and so I am glad that I caught up with it. But I am seeing that the number of views is quite low, and you obviously have great and rather unique content here, and you put a ton of work into this, so it deserves more. I think this is a video that should have cross-over potential over to many 'green' and 'solar' TH-cam watchers, who don't care about family or lifestyle vlogs, but rather look for information only. But I don't think they get to see this, so that becomes an issue of title, search term, SEO type work to try to get this video or similar ones in front of a few more eyes. The second part is, that for such a video to keep such other viewer's attention, get to the point right away, so not much family specific history on that video, because otherwise such folks click on, before you get to all your valuable points of information. Most of us others very much enjoy the other topics and follow all your family stories of course, so for other videos just keep doing what you are doing, it is working well, just for these cross-over videos, I would change my strategy a bit.
Sustainability, energy efficiency, environmental public policy, housing or residential construction, solar,....etc, would all be good angles to try to attract more viewers, should you plan a few more videos with this type of focus. If this is just a one off, it probably does not matter much. But I would love to have more people here in the US see this, especially because here in the US the first problem is that we have to overcome the disbelief that something can actually be done about all this. Unfortunately, there is a lot of shoulder-shrugging going on here, the thought is that nothing can be done to save us from global warming, so we might as well do nothing at all. Videos like yours show a path forward. Reducing energy consumption by 45 % over 13 years and completely altering new construction standards along the way, that is quite an achievement. Of course there is the huge stock of existing houses, which are not built to this standard yet, but as roof replacements or other maintenance projects are undertaken, things will gradually improve, now that builders are familiar with the techniques. It is a great video to demonstrate all this.
Unser Vermieter macht sich auch gerade schlau nicht nur über Solarpanele auf dem Dach sondern auch über eine vorgehängte Grünfassade! ich als angehende Architektin finde das super!
You keep providing us with great videos and thank you for taking us on your adventures and teaching us something. I hope they TH-cam algorithm catches on n your channel gets a trillion subscribers
Again a great informative video of yours!
Hello from Finland! There's a new concept for energystorage in Finland from Cactos Oy.
It uses used Tesla batteries and they lease them for use 400€/month. 100kWh storage with 50kWh output.
I'm not involved with the company or anything else for that matter. Just regular finnish homeowner that still uses oil.
That is about three times the cost of my energy before I had P (Germany). Our meter shows about 30-40 kWh per day, less than 5 kWh of which are during the night.
About the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau has its roots in the demand for housing after 1945 and the European Recovery Programme (colloquially called Marshallplan after the US-Foreign Secretary in those days). It is in the hands of the public and the credits it gives must be used for the building economy, not for do-it-yourself homebuilders and restorers.
My solar farm produces EXACTLY 1.21 Jigawatts. No more, no less.
That's about three fiddy less than mine.
So glad to see the Netherlands is not the only country that has made finding subsidies and such as clear as mud..hahahaha..
Here we also have a bit of a patchwork of local and government programs and such but most seem aimed at reducing gas usage and the need for electricity generated by fossil fuel.
Anyways great video, feels like they are becoming so professional they need to be shown at documentary festivals and such!!
Just gonna drop useful info-sources i vouch for:
UpIsNotJump, Hbomberguy, Climate-Town, Some More News, Second Thought!
Useful AND i promise theyre not gloomy.
I am currently in the process of building a KfW40+ home and hope to move by January. My experience with the programs is kind of mixed so far. Since we started planning out home building there have been at least 3 different regimes by the KfW. Transitions between those programs has not been well designed and changes are made with little to no notice period. This makes it hard to plan.
Also many programs come with arbitrary and strange restrictions. For example, the Netzdienliche Speicher program you mentioned, limits feeding power to the grid to 50% of you installed capacity. A number that is likely exceeded on a nice sunny day even with the home battery. Many other programs like the Baukindergeld or Z15 have hard cuts on income instead of a smooth transition and honestly, some income limits are so low that you should not build if you qualify.
And overall, I think there is too much money paid out as incentives. Building a KfW40+ home qualifies for more than 40k of subsidies, that is just crazy
I grow lots of plants in my garden. Does that make it greener? By looks for sure!
Wonderful informative video again.
Not your fault: The first part of the video (about solar + EV) made me get upset. Everything around that theme makes me as an electrical engineer explode. (I already drive an EV)
- The subsidy for charging points includes that the charging point is "Netzdienlich" - it should react to some needs from the grid. BUT there are NO standards to realize that. We have some 872 "Netzbetreiber" - the corps that run the local power grid. EVERY of them might (or may not) have their own rules and regulations about how to interact with such a device. So the subsidy simply depended on the charging point must have a reprogrammable device inside that might implement a standard that might come some time - I'm raging about that.
- energy storage again to my first point, there is no common protocol how the network should command the battery that there is an urgent need for energy in the grind and it should jump in.
- the big energy provider are afraid of the discussion - because the privat owner of the - expensive - batteries would ask for a decent price for the energy to jump in a shortage - what would be complete reasonable for me.
the crazy thing is how overpriced home battery storage is. 500€/kWh would already be very high.
Very interesting regarding electric vehicles and intelligent/smart grid is the program running in Groningen, Netherlands.
I'll have to check it out then! Thanks!
@@TypeAshton Look for "Groningen Microgrid Project"
Great video! Could you please share which construction company did you use? Many thanks.
aquaTurm Hotel in Radolfzell at Lake Constance
The building supplies itself with 100% renewable energy:
Hydrothermics
photovoltaics
Solar thermal energy
Wind power
Thanks ... Great video. 👍 sadly its all very confusing... perhaps I need to spend a day with someone to understand the ins and outs of the KfW. 👍
Unfortunately, the promotion for grid-friendly PV battery-storage in B-W already run out about 1 year ago. Also the current Wallbox-bonus in B-W is linked to the purchase of an electric vehicle. Basically, most of the funding has expired over the last year, except local subsidies and of course the Einspeisevergütung (feed-in tariff), which is now a little bit higher. But fyi: the Stadtwerke Waldkirch (local energy suppplier) is offering a bonus for a rooftop PV-system up to 450 € for their customers. So at least that 🙂 Btw, we should get our offer from our electrician (for pv, battery + wallbox) this week, if you are also interested ;-) Regards, Niels
Hi Niels! Thank you so much for the info! We are would love to get more info about the cost of everything together once you, Nina and the rest of the neighbors get your quote. I think we will probably go for it next year, so I'm sure the price will rise a little bit it would be a wonderful "ballpark" for us. Unfortunately the Stadtwerke Waldkirch wasn't taking on any new customers so we had to go with a different energy supplier. Still all "green" energy but a bit of a bummer that we couldn't go with the local option.
Thanks
Wow that is incredible. Thank you so much.
... and the energy you need to produce hydrogen you can get from renewable energies like solar or wind. And last not least in cases of car accidents its is very complicated to blow out the fire of e-cars.
I am interested in having a solar-roof on my house, but the biggest problem is, to find a company which is willing to install that system.
Why its so hard to find a company?
@@sandralison7584 Because all the companies are used to capacity for month, if not years, they cant follow the orders. And on the other side there are problems in delivering items, sometimes there are no collectors available, ore other stuff is not available right now.
5:00 - 5:16 🤣🤣also difficult for a German sometimes 😍
there must first be a cutie from america so that i can learn more or be interested in things i have hardly thought about before! I've always been waiting for the next Sunday, no matter what the topic is. ashton and jonathan you guys are great!
btw has something happened in terms of the berlin archive and grandfather's citizenship?
greetings to your men! Michael/Hanover
I've never once considered a thumbnail when clicking on a video. I read the title to see if THAT interests me. A 50th picture of the same person isn't going to make or break it.
when do we get to see your finished house?
Hello Ashton, hello Jonathan ,
happy Sunday! Thank you for sharing all the Tipps to get the credits and other benefits when building an eco-friendly home in Germany. Me personally the are not helping because I'm in the process of Solling my house. Reason it's much to big for one Person, currently I'm Livingstone alone in this house after my mother died. I was lucky to find a nice little appartement heated with Fernwärme.
Sorry for that off-topic. Best regards Ralf
Hi Ralf! Happy Sunday to you too! That's an exciting time nonetheless. I hope you're move and transition is smooth and you settle into your new space with relative ease. As someone who just finished unpacking the last box from our move on June, I can say with near certainty... They will have to burry me in the backyard. I am never moving again 😂. Haha.
Hi Ashton I'm moving in September but I still startet the process of getting rid of things that I will not bring to my new flat.
So after moving to your new home you should make a comparisson "Ashton before and after moving"
By the wax, all the best in your new home, be always happy and healthy!! Ralf
A question to an American for another video: Might there be some comparison between our actual standard KFW 55 and US standards (not all 51 😅)?
Why is battery storage so expensive compared to electric cars? For comparison, you can get a Volkswagen ID4 with a 77 kWh battery for € 47,000. That's € 610 per kWh, instead of € 1100, and it includes an entire car.
Because of the profit. Cell price is
I am interested in the solar subsidies.
Whilst there is merit in building new sustainable homes, each country has a huge stock of homes that are products of their past. Your home is already out of date with the current modern standards and that happens year in, year out as the standards grow leaving behind previous iterations of standard compliant homes. Sadly, most homes built to whatever standard be that 1922 or 2022 will be difficult to upgrade and no account is taken for that particularly in modern homes where there is the most notable changes. What have you got in your new home to make it future proof and can it be readily adapted to improve its energy use?
We have three homes, two for rent and our own home, one was built in 1910, one in 1968 and our home in 1953/1998. The first two will, if the legislation is passed, have to be upgraded from Band E to Band C on the Energy Performance Certificate but that will cost ~£50,000 and the other ~£75,000 even though both have energy saving features. Both costs are unsustainable and if we add the financing charges to the rent just to maintain the pitiful return we currently have the properties will become unaffordable. One property is therefore on the market for sale.
Our own home was improved to the then current standards applicable at each stage at that time from 38 years ago when we moved in, but are now below any form of what may be called an efficient home by todays (but not tomorrow's) standard. It is now very difficult to improve it further without gutting the interior entirely and starting again, the thought of doing what would be necessary is cringe worthy. We can't even add PVs because the only appropriate roof is full of roof windows and is shaded by a substantial walnut tree that is doing its bit to absorb carbon.
Germany, please give us some found to build a house too!
to many refugees, help us now!
I need to move NOW, Germany, help us!
Wir schaffen das????????????
Many landords might have to sell their properties because the standards are expensive
I will also be curious how these increases in construction costs will be ultimately passed down to the tenant... Although theoretically they would then benefit from energy savings. Still a very interesting development that we will need to watch and whether or not there will be differing requirements for a row house with 4 apartments versus an apartment building with 20+ units.
It's interesting to see how different countries are subsidizing a home/building towards a better usage of electricity. Where I reside they help (financially) on the insulation of those, thus reducing heating/cooling and water consumption but these renovation are to try to meet the new construction requirements of new builds.
But there are no incentives pertaining to solar, as 100% of our electricity is hydro powered and governmental owned, therefore our cost per kWh is extremely cheap for a Western country (solar cost more than traditional electricity even if you factor it over a 30 yr period). In the past the incentives were focused on the change to electricity heating versus oil and gas, but there has been a push in the last 10 years to convert to a passive heating and cooling (geothermal) system as the new "standard".
From the combination of your name and hydro I would guess, Quebec, and not Norway? - if you have abundant hydro power then electrical energy is cheap indeed. Not here. Germany has
@@Henning_Rech Wow!! you guessed right. I was wondering why the incentives given in your country aren't in tandem with geothermal or heat pump? To help reduce the direct need of conventional heating and cooling. (by converting old water radiator [radiant] some name it hydronic system or by incorporating in floor heating/cooling).
I took the time to read up on the "Building Energy Act" GEG and for a northern Country like us, I was surprised to see how similar your government ratings needed to be achieved in your country as those have been the norm since 2014 here.
Here are a few examples (This is for the detached residential building in U value):
Roof DE U=.20
QC=.20
Exterior walls DE=.35
QC= .40
Windows DE=1.3
QC minimum requirement is 2 panes of glass, avg is 3 and best is 4 with a exterior brown reflection. But the credit is not on the windows but rather it is a calculated as air changes per hour (ACH) [air tightness] as the rating or grade of a window/door will limit heat loss but the proper or improper insulation around must be taken in consideration thus the need for this test. As a mandatory blower door testing to be conducted before drywall installation as it is unrealistic to try to improve a home’s thermal insulation value without ensuring its airtightness. Energy savings cannot be achieved without a true airtight barrier.
We also have included a credit for any drain water heat recovery (DWHR). This pipe is a simple technology to save on energy used to heat water. This pipe takes advantage of the warm water flowing down the drains to preheat the water going into the hot water tank. Preheating the water reduces the amount of energy needed to heat the water to the set temperature
If you want information on the last, here's a link
www.nrcan.gc.ca/sites/www.nrcan.gc.ca/files/oee/files/pdf/equipment/WaterHeaterGuide_e.pdf
Over the border in Czechia, you can get subsidies for solar systems (50%) and heat pumps. However, the subsidies do not work at the moment, because providers of those systems are out of stock of components as well as out of people to do the job. So you can pay, let's say for 10KWh system, €10 000,- if you get it yourself, or you can get it via provider for €20 000,- and get €10 000,- subsidy. BUT, in the latter case, you'll wait 9 months or more. But you won't get it cheaper :-(. Subsidies are failing in this regard - it would be more effective, if the state spent the money on prioritizing deliveries of components to the market and training of new skilled workers. That's why I opted for getting the system without subsidies, but I got it "immediately", without any bureaucracy and waiting.
Same in Germany. The 1100 EUR/kWh for storage is the price with installation, and you will have to wait a long time. If you just buy the battery unit and connect it yourself to a grid inverter this will half the cost, and you can do it now. If you are a bit more adventurous (and skilled), buy the cells and necessary electronics from the manufacturer and assemble them yourself (not for everyone), you can do it for 200 EUR/kWh.
@@Henning_Rech Yes. Of course I paid an electrician to do the electrical work due to legal reasons and to have peace in my mind. But that's small fraction of what it would cost via a company selling it as "delivery". I then had two options - to buy it as a "components" matching them together myself or buy it as a "kit" or "system". I choose a system, because telhe components were proven to work together, one get a manual and technical help line and little bit lmore complex warranty. It costs only little bit more than components themselves, cca 10% extra.
@@oakld My comment was about a storage unit (battery) - yours too?
@@Henning_Rech we get subsidy for the whole system. One can get subsidy even for a solar system without battery. But it generally applies to batteries too. These days you can get a "server rack" type LiFePo4 battery, which is trivial to connect and basically maintenance - less, so I guess you wouldn't need an electrician, if you already have a solar system and you're just replacing your battery or just connecting it to inverter.
By the way I got my 4.8 KWh LiFePo4 battery for about €2000,-, so it comes at €416,-/KWh delivered, but not installed.
@@oakld I did not ask for education. M y 11 kWh cells costed 1600 EUR; with BMS and charger and the rest it will stay below 2000 on a DIY system.
Spelling question: your headline at 3:05 says "Solar subsides" From what I know should 't it be subsidies??
You habe to Look at Hamburg- Övelgönne...very nicht
I am curious as to what changes are made to your house to go from a KfW70 to a KfW55 and what sort of cost increase there is IE if it is 2 CM more wall thickness and slightly better quality boiler with a total increase of say 10K Euro and you get 15K "free" then awesome but if it was requiring 50K of stored battery AND PV solar cell install as the top 40+ requires then the upfront is WAY higher then the rebate and making it "harder" to reach
as an extension at what point does the higher KfW get to the point it is UN AFFORDABLE by Average people as I imagine at this point a KfW 40 is NOT a lot more expensive then a 55
There are examples how you can reach highest standards. But it comes down to more outer wall insulation, better insulated windows and door, a central ventilation, a solar system, a heatpump. For 12k you can get either better walls or better windows or better rooftop insulation.
As regards electric powered cars, I've yet to fully believe that they are as 'green' as they make out. When you take into account the environmental impacts of obtaining the metals that are required to manufacture the batteries.
Digging up the ground for the metal ore, then processing the metals to extract from the ore (emissions, use of resources to run the processes, habitat loss etc etc.
Then the construction of the battery manufacturing facilities - again emissions, resource use etc.
Disposal costs of the car batteries at the end of their useful lives - toxic metals etc
Sure the electricity can be produced via wind turbines etc.
From what I can see the generation of hydrogen via electrolysis of water seems to be a more green technology. Again electricity via wind turbines. The combustion of hydrogen does not lead to green house gas emissions. Less harmful waste when recycling at the end of a vehicle's life.
Hydrogen does have some technical challenges in terms of transporting it, it leaks easily, flammability risks etc.
The recycling of old batteries is going to be big business in the future. It really is high grade ore to feed back into the manufacturing of new batteries. Or will eventually become a closed loop.
I think it’s funny how everyone always brings up the environmental impact that’s happening to harvest materials for batteries when it’s about EVs but simply accepts the damage that has been done (and is still made) which is required for fossil fuels.
(Not to mention that the damage is no problem when it’s about Smartphone batteries…)
Not saying that it should not be criticized but just pointing out the double standard.
Hydrogen cars are going to be a solution for big trucks, trains on not electrified tracks etc. but they will most likely always lose / be more expensive than normal EVs.
Simply because they need more parts, a (smaller sized) battery as well, and creating and burning hydrogen is very inefficient compared to charging a battery.
@@NightDevilMacGeneral Who's ignoring the damage from fossil fuel? That why the great efforts are now being made to move past fossil fuel. It seems to be an odd statement you have made there.
Does it matter so much if burning hydrogen isn't that efficient - if it is less environmentally damaging than digging up the earth for metal ore and the environmental cost of smelting and processing the metal from the ore. A very energy in tensive process, using plenty of nasty chemicals etc
Then there is the land use/loss of habitat if the ore mines will be open cast mines. What about the locals who will likely have to move location, loss of habitat for animals etc.
you are missing one aspect of electric vehicles today, especially in Europe. Fossil fuels are getting less and less available due to the war between russia and ukraine, and as such much more expensive. you can't run an ICE car without fuel. period. an electric car that runs on power generated with coal or natural gas today, will be able to run on power generated without coal or natural gas tomorrow. That is called future proofing.
@@uliwehner You can get hydrogen from the electrolysis of water, the electricity from wind turbines to power the electrolysis equipment. Future proof as well
Going green takes a lot of purple
Your information on Housing in the US & Germany is very interesting and informative, however; I miss the "Black Forest FAMILY!! Personally I don't believe it's possible to live without the use of Fossil Fuel. It's necessary to support the Electric Auto, for one example. I'd like to see the Family once again. Just my opinion, however; you asked. Best Wishes.
Not to worry. We have a lot of family content coming in the line up over the next couple of weeks. ❤️
Nice! :)
If you all were building or buying a house in the US( assuming you somehow were back there) would your family still be adding solar to your house?
We have family friends who have done it...but you have to WANT to do it. There is certainly less of a financial incentive to install solar in the States. The price per KwH for energy is a fraction of that in Germany and there aren't as many widespread programs to incentivize energy efficient homes.
We plan a few days in Freiburg and the Schwarzwald area next month...whats a must to go restaurant or Weinstube you might suggest 😉?
Some of our favorite places: "Kreuzeck", "Gasthaus Bauerntafel auf St.Barbara" and "Das Kartoffelhaus" are some of our favorite German dishes. We also love "Casa Espanola" and "Yepa Yepa" (lunch) for some spicy spanish/latin flavors. For wine, the "Alte Wache Freiburg" is a bit toursit-y (but for a good reason, because it is nice), also, Weber's Weinstube is also great. ❤️❤️
@@TypeAshton now that is some proper customer service! Vielen herzlichen Dank;)
How effective are so-called "green" energy technologies in Germany? My understanding, is that apart from strong winds along the North Sea coast, and parts of the Rhine valley where there are hot springs, Germany does not have a good wind, solar or geothermal resource base, and that most of the potential hydro-electric sites have already been developed.
Um, then you might want to change your information sources. Yesterday 46.5 % of german power production came from renewables. 15 % comes from wind turbines, a third of this is produced offshore atm. There are plans to build offshore wind farms with a capacity ten times the current capacity, as most is produced onshore now. Solar will be extended further, too. Also the use of biogas will be increased.
E. g. we now produce more electricity from biogaz than from hydro power or nuclear. But PV and wind plants will have to be multiplied in the coming years for decarbonization. With only a few % of the land area we can become completely energy neutral.
Germany's biggest problem for all of this, is well Germany itself. The endless and often pointless amount of bureaucracy they put in the way of anyone wanting to go green is frustrating. My solar panels only cover 60% of my roof? Why because the government would have buried me in paperwork for going over 10kw. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing even then and now the solution is just worse. My car charger that isn't a car charger because an official car charger (with government money) would have cost more and been harder to install. Seriously don't understand how they don't see it.
Hi...
Your vcast was a little German Centric, but still had interesting 🤔 content.
Kind of off the subject, do many people outright buy their homes? For cash?
If you have a moment, I would be very interested.
Thanks :-)
JDF
I am not sure really. I know that property is frequently inherited and passed down. In our area homes are extremely expensive (similar to San Francisco in the USA). To buy a property outright in cash would take a lot of capital.
Wow, that was really complicated. For a German😅
I was once studying abroad in the US as a German. Theres so many differences, in any aspect of life. I really didn't like most food in the US, it was either to greasy or too sweat. Or both. Anyhow I had a blast in the US.
I hope you enjoy y'all's time here cheers
Can't beat a cimmarron bagel with honey walnut cream cheese! Ah, the memories!
@@V100-e5q 🤮
I love the idea of powering your own car with your own solar panels, but to do that you already have to be kinda wealthy to afford the whole deal in the first place.
Also, im not sold on EVs as a whole with their Lithium Batterys and potential...was it child labor? in the mines for them, and no real plan on how to recycle or dispose of them after their rather short lifespan. Its not ready for wide spread use, due to the carbon emissions already present in their manufacture. IMHO anyway.
Also you cant really get enough charging spaces to most places, especially in cities. Or you have to spend a fairly long time sitting next to a public one waiting for your car to charge or something.
What do you think about those issues ?
There are a lot of good reasons against EVs (especially as they will not provide any incentives for a changed mobility behavior), but neither child labor nor recycability or durability are good reasons.
The child labor issue is not with lithium mines, but with mines for cobalt, which comes primarily from the Congo. As cobalt demand grows, cobalt mining also becomes more professional and there's less child labor involved. But actually there is not only less and less cobalt used in modern batteries for EVs, but also cobalt has always been used especially in the production of colors, but also the desulfurization for fuel. Child labor has always been a very emotional argument, to take attention away from the rather dirty process of the fossil fuel industry.
Regarding the lifetime and recyclability, electric vehicles also achieve superior results already. Modern EV batteries easily reach lifetime ranges of more than 300.000, 400.000 and sometimes even 1.000.000 km already, after which they are usually still good enough for stationary storage purposes before they can be recycled with up to 95% of material. The batteries of electric vehicles today easily outlife any combustion engine driven car already. Any BEV will easily surpase any amount of initial CO₂ footprint, within a five figure number of kilometers - with predominant PV charging even sooner.
There is no real scenario, where any new combustion engine driven car can be more environmentally friendly than a BEV.
Future city planning should restrict car ownership in general to people who provide their own parking (either by having a parking space on their own ground, or by renting such a parking space), which is not only good for change of traffic within urban areas, but is also much fairer regarding the costs of car ownership and the public subsidization. In such a scenario, there is absolutely no issue to create and organize the charging infrastructure for EVs.
@@patrickhanft To be fair i havent looked into it extensively, only surface level at best, because i could never afford one either way. Let alone charge it at home.
Not in the foreseeable future at any rate.
If there is to be a marked change in traffic behaviour, there needs to be a drastic improvement of public transport, especially in rural areas but cities too.
Now that i could use the 9€ ticket a bit the last few months, its nice. But if i need twice as long *per way* to and from a place i might take a car anyway. I dont want to waste that kind of time personally.
I was mostly watching those 2 TEDx videos a few months ago that got me to look into these things at least a little bit :
th-cam.com/video/S1E8SQde5rk/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/N-yALPEpV4w/w-d-xo.html&t
@@IIIJG52 I watched the first TED talk to try to understand your argument. And while there's generally a lot I can agree with Graham Conway on - for example that you need to compare all emissions over the life of the vehicle, I see also a lot of issues.
The premise Conway starts with, is that CO₂ levels of BEVs are not measured. And while this may be true for the required "CO₂ per km" value that car manufactures have to provide, it is absolutely not true regarding numerous comparisons that had been made between BEV and conventional combustion engine cars over the years. In fact, when he argues about the CO₂ of power production, that is obviously relevant, there are websites that tell you the average CO₂ grams per kWh value for the current and average grid power production for every country. It is very easy to find those numbers and this can and is done by people who made serious comparisons. Due to the really efficient nature of electric vehicles - or shall I say unefficient nature of internal combustion engines - even with power from coal plants, you still are more efficient regarding grams CO₂ per km using most BEVs in comparison to a gas powered car (apart from the "charging from the sun" topic).
So the impression, Graham Conway tries to make, that these comparisons are not really done, is not true.
But the actual problem is, that Conway also does not a good job with his comparisons. For example, he just assumes, lifetime of ICE and BEV are just the same. But this is nothing you should just assume. Quite the contrary, you have far more movable parts within an ICE car, meaning that there is a far lower mean time between failures just by statistics. It is a system with high vibrations and a high degree of maintenance and repairs needed. Such a car will reach the moment where it is not economically viable far sooner than a BEV, which is less complicated in its system and has far less opportunity to "break". You should assume a bigger lifetime of an BEV in comparison, but Graham doesn't do that.
Apart from that I'll argue that Conway's numbers regarding the amount of CO₂ footprint needed for the battery, is based on rather old numbers that do not reflect the highly evolving industry around battery production and how they were for economic reasons able to reduce a fair amount of the energy needed to produce such batteries. Also, for ressource purposes, the battery cell chemistry is highly evolving to materials, that are far easier and less energy intensive to obtain. The claim, we would be decades away from that is just not true. Also his claim that you need to compare a 400 mile battery just for the same convenience is cheap and just not true. Because no, you don't need this range (especially outside of North America) as charging infrastructure becomes far better and the battery size of BEVs has just stopped to grow. For purely economic reasons.
But the point that I don't like most in his video is the following: Production of fuels for internal combustion engines is also highly energy intensive. This number is to be said to be 1,60 kWh per one litre of gas, or about 10 kWh per the amount of fuel you need to drive your car 100km. That is more than half of what an average BEV would need to charge for this distance, but this power consumption is also not considered for the CO₂ output of any ICE car.
You need to compare all emissions over the lifetime of a vehicle. Graham Conway does not do that, he just arranges the number, until the BEV looks worse than it is. He wants to sell internal combustion engines, because this is the hand that feeds him. His propagation of e-fuels tells, that he does not really want to do a clear comparison, because e-fuels will never, never, never be anywhere good enough to be burned in an internal combustion engine. Their efficiency is far to bad for that - and with it their remaining CO₂ footprint. There is no clean e-fuel.
There's something better than a BEV, but that is not to drive an hybrid, which is much more complex than both of the other cars. It is to not have a car at all. And yes, that should be our main priority. But for everything else, there's just not any reason not to have any new car being electric.
The future is less cars. But the remaining cars will all be electric. Not only because they are cleaner and more comfortable, but because people won't accept the terrible noise of everything else anymore.
@@patrickhanft That was put together far better and in far more (probably well researched) detail that i ever expected in a YT comment.
I like you.
The huge battery for the electric cars put out a lot of emissions to manufacture. It’s much higher than an ICE car. Smaller as in nonSuv vehicles as a hybrid are much better. The battery can be much smaller making less battery waste, and the overall lifespan of the vehicle will be a lot longer. I don’t want to replace my car every 7 to 10 years. I drive a 2008 Toyota Sienna that is very reliable despite being older.
High Ashton good to see you again. Hope everybody is well.
Is there a chance you will cover Barceleonas super blocks project sometime in the future?
Thanks!! Jonathan and I were just saying yesterday how thankful we were thank Jack is back to his goofy happy self. Our house feels a lot more carefree 🤪
I would love to cover that in a future video. I think after this video we are going to take a bit of a break from housing, however. We have some fun videos planned over the next few weeks, including some with our families from the States and we hope to share their perspective on life in Germany. ☺️
@@TypeAshton That will interesting. As you know by now Germans love to watch/read and listen to what other people think about us and our country.
Is there a scheme for retrofitting the existing building to a better energy standard?
How about financial scheme for a passivhaus buildings?
From my understanding the KFW wants got focus more of their funding for renovation of existing buildings and away from new construction.. and their funding is precipitated on reaching a level of efficiency, not on any specific technology - allowing you to select the system that you like as long as it helps you reach the benchmark . I can't speak from personal experience on this, but it would be worthwhile talking to a KfW funding Consultant to see what kinds of funding options you would have.
The KfW 40+ basically is very close to a passivhaus.
Retrofitting to a better energy standard: there where fundings for this. Not sure if they still exist.
@@peter_meyer im guessing the 40 stands for 40kWh/sqare meter/annum. Pasivehaus is 15kWh/sqare meter/annum which is a value low enough to eliminate dedicated heating system. So the Passivhaus is nearly 3 times better.
Unless 40 stands for something else.
@@ukrytykrytyk8477 Um, watch the video?
@@peter_meyer I watched it on a phone. If those values were given on some of the tables I just couldn't see them. Will you be so kind and explain then what 40 stands for exactly?
Wow, this is very interesting. I'm just thinking that the 'average' citizen doesn't have the capacity/ability to work out how they can take advantage of the possibilities on offer. You are obviously in tune with the situation and it seems that it should be easier to access the kickbacks from the government without the professional knowledge that you both have through your advanced education.
It is also very , very confusing a things seem to phase out CONSTANTLY. If an article was written just a few months ago it might be out of date. Another on here commented that they used a special advisor for the KfW, so that might be a good option to have someone also help you with all of the paperwork.
I feel like EV subsidies totally overlook all disadvantages of cars other than their emissions (traffic, accidents, transportation efficiency, etc). This is not even considering the fact that EVs are not totally zero carbon! :(
I have a question Regarding your facial expressions. Is it natural or did you learn it in a debate Club or something? Sorry weird question however I am struggling with Social Anxiety Disorder since childhood an now I am trying to learn the subleties of Human comunication.😅
Using the term “master plan” in Germany? Probably not a good idea.
So dear Friends
This is for Jonathan:
In germany we have a saying: Behind every good man is a strong woman. So you did the right choice...
A german compliment 😍😍😊😊❤❤ Yepp i am a womanizer 😂😂😂😂
I am not convinced of electric cars at all because they would result in big environmental problems. Acid and lead would have to be recicled (if possible). To my mind the much better solution are hydrogen-cars. Instead of exhaust gases water would run out of an tailpipe.
You won't find Acid or lead in the battery of a modern BEV.
hydrogen cars you must be suicidal ..🤣
We bought a plot in spring and the architect is preparing the Baugenehmigung right now. Of course, the construction companies are super interested in KfW 40 programs because the houses are full of expensive technology that needs to be serviced and eventually replaced. I want my house to have as little technology as possible so we won't even do KfW 55. Also the KfW 40 is a printing machine of money for the energy expert for the certificates. Or do you think that your 4k certificate was more than half a days's work?
Our energy certification only cost 1600 euros. Still not cheap by any means, but considering that certificate gets us 18,000 off of our loan, it was worth it.
@@TypeAshton Yes, the 50 version makes more sense. The certificate for KfW 40 costs 8-9 grand alone.
I was also not a fan of kfw and instead got bafa subsidy. I got less money though, because my installation was already cheap due to DIY. But 16k for 10kwp solar and heatpump was totally fine as i didn't have to support certificate printer leeches. Around every subsidy is a business model.
This is europe wide.
EU vía Spanish government vía básque country administration just paid me 50% of installation 8800€!!
question, i've been told that if you have solar panels on your rooftop and the house catches up a fire, the firefighters won't fight the fire because it is too dangerous for them to put it out because of the electricity involved, anybody else heard that? or is that an urban legend? or maybe it's because those solar panels are made in china only nowadays?
I don't think it is a China thing. But when the sun shines you should not unplug Solarpanels. I can make an light ark. Very dangerous.
Sounds a bit like a myth to me
Can't they just shut down the inverter?
I think that may be a bit of an urban legend. I was just reading an article here (www.treehugger.com/the-roof-is-on-fire-do-solar-panels-hinder-firefighters-4866586) that brings up a lot of challenges, including roof access and properly venting a fire when solar panels are present. But it seems the biggest challenge is a lack of standardized training and best practices when fires are present.
Sounds like fake news from power companies. I am pretty sure there are precautions and measures in place for that.
They have to fight the fire. It is just a bit more dangerous bc the DC-current is still flowing on the cables from the PV-System. So they have to be more careful
As with recycling, building more green is not a political issue in Germany, it is just a normal part of life and a necessity. I wish, it wasn't such a political hot button issue in the U.S. To me, it's idiotic and counter productive.
We very much agree.
Mein Vermieter hat absolut kein Interesse in irgendetwas was nur ansatzweise an „ Erneuerung“ erinnert. Warum? Energiekosten zahlt der Mieter!
PV, Wärmepumpen und Speicher Steigern den Wert des Gebäudes. Damit könnte der Vermieter in zukunft mehr verdienen. Aber warum Zukunft und Wirtschaft gemeinsam sehen wenn man eh nur aufwand hat stimmts ?
Zeigs dem Vermieter indem du ein Plus Energie Haus baust. Da wird der doof schauen.