"Hey, do you know why the English run their water pipes on the outside of their houses?"
"No?"
"It's so that they can get to them easier when they freeze!"
And then everyone laughs.
...and then years later you visit England, find out that it's actually true, and then you cry.
It's pretty eye-opening how terrible the insulation standards are outside the Nordics. It's one of those things we take for absolutely granted, and then you realize that absolutely no-one else really does this.
This video made the rounds a couple of years ago:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zi5GKFCf_/
Everyone from the Nordics commenting on it went "aawwww, how cute!", everyone else went "OMG THE HEATING BILL!!??!??!"
No, look at how the snow is piled up against the windows without melting. Those are quadruple-paned insulated panoramic windows. They do not leak heat.
The Nordics have crazy high standards for insulation. We've reached the point where increasing the standards no longer makes sense.
There are literally zero drawbacks to the way it's constructed and heated, no compromise needed, so this HN Ask is so weird to me, and it's clear that me and OP live in completely different worlds.
Triple glazed windows, 25+cm insulation, heat pump + heat recuperation, solar panels and you have a passive home. No need for gas which is a fire hazard.
But if you're building a new house, wouldn't you roll in district heating if readily available.
Agreed, patching district heating into an old house might be hard/expensive.
There is also risk for the future. What if there is some corruption and private entity would take over trying to squeeze money from the people cause it's a monopoly?
I think owned by the consumers.
Indeed local regulation for the lot of land I'm on stipulates that district heating must be the primary heat source.
This gives it some economies of scale, I'm guessing...
But I do wonder if geothermal power will come along to make district heating cheap and renewable.