Self-sufficient house » Energy self-sufficient house for more independence
Published: 10.10.2022 | Reading time: 7 minutes
The energy crisis and climate change clearly show how private households and, above all, commercial consumers are dependent on gas and electricity as their primary energy sources.
Painful price hikes are the order of the day, especially for gas and oil. The fear of supply bottlenecks for fossil fuels and power cuts is also huge.
This is why the desire for energy self-sufficient living is coming to the fore for many. People who live energy self-sufficiently can look forward to rising energy prices with peace of mind.
Power cuts or gas interruptions affect people with a largely energy self-sufficient home less severely, much later or not at all.
What is a self-sufficient home all about? And what can you do to make your own home more self-sufficient in terms of heating and electricity? Find out more in our guide.
An alpine hut is the best example of a self-sufficient lifestyle.
Self-sufficient means being independent - and this mainly refers to the energy supply.
Residential buildings typically have many connections to the outside. Electricity, gas or district heating, water and waste water are supplied or discharged via these connections.
Self-sufficient living and the self-sufficient detached house stand for a living concept in line with the energy transition and climate protection: reduced or better decoupled from external influences and dependencies - either energetically or economically - or both.
A self-sufficient building generates the energy consumed by the occupants themselves.
Depending on the gradation, self-sufficiency can include the purchase of electricity and heat or also the water supply.
Possible components of a self-sufficient house
Legend:
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Wind generator
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Solar collectors
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Photovoltaics
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Electric car charging station
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Ground collectors
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Heat pump
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Hot water buffer tank
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Battery storage
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Water-bearing wood stove
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Domestic waterworks
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Rainwater tank
Electr. current
Rainwater
Hot water
There are many advantages to making your own home independent of external energy sources. The holistically energy-efficient detached house ...
✓ stands for an efficient, sustainable, environmentally friendly and green energy supply.
✓ ensures zero reduction of external electricity, heating energy and hot water.
✓ saves on basic costs and consumption-based charges for energy suppliers at the place of residence
✓ makes you independent of supply bottlenecks and supply difficulties
✓ decouples from the public grid and connection lines as well as from supply contracts if desired
✓ shapes the energy transition with your own property.
✓ demonstrates pioneering spirit and role model character.
✓ gives residents a good feeling.
Tip: Find out about regional funding opportunities, for example from the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) or the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAfA). By tapping into funding pots, you can reduce the costs of your eco-house.
Self-sufficient homes are not available off the shelf - and there is no blueprint for everyone. Instead, there are different levels. As a rule, we already speak of a self-sufficient house today if it is no longer completely dependent on an external supply of electricity and heat.
Kfw efficiency house
The KfW Efficiency House, or Efficiency House for short, marks the starting point. Thanks to insulation measures and good insulation, it requires significantly less energy than the reference buildings used by KfW. The KfW Efficiency House is available in the 40 and 40 Plus variants: they are 60 percent lower than the reference values for the KfW Efficiency House 40. In the 40 Plus variant, the same requirements apply as for the Efficiency House 40, plus additional specifications for the ventilation system, power generation, battery storage system and operating terminal.
Passive house
Passive houses are more energy-efficient and therefore a step towards self-sufficient living. Thanks to strict insulation and even better heat retention properties, such a building can be heated primarily by passive heat sources such as solar radiation using solar systems. Ventilation with heat recovery serves as a further heat source for the self-sufficient heat supply. It distributes the warm air throughout the house via ducts. This pays off: a passive house consumes around 90 percent less heat than an existing building and 75 percent less energy than new buildings. Passive houses are now available for almost all types of use: Residential buildings, offices and administrative wings, production halls and storage areas.
Zero-energy house
In addition to these low-energy house variants, there is also the zero-energy house. It is characterized by a balanced energy balance: The building consumes as much energy or even less than is generated by photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. Within the building categories, it is up to the client or building renovator to decide how to heat and generate electricity self-sufficiently.
The self-sufficient house is available in several variants with different equipment and system sizes. The linchpin is the very good thermal insulation, which can be realized in new buildings and as part of an energy-efficient refurbishment. It keeps the heat inside the building in winter and prevents heat loss. In summer, it shields the heat so that it stays pleasantly fresh and cool inside.
The basic idea is to use regenerative energy sources in the house, such as direct sunlight, wind or environmental heat. This allows you to dispense with the use of renewable raw materials such as wood. The easiest way to achieve self-sufficient living quality for long-term living is to combine a photovoltaic system, battery storage and heat pump.
If you take the matter seriously, you can continue environmentally friendly, self-sufficient energy generation on a small scale. For example, smart home solutions such as EnOcean allow components to be operated without electricity supplied by batteries. Actuators such as light switches and push-buttons generate the necessary operating energy by means of energy harvesting: electromechanical converters supply tiny amounts of electricity in the form of kinetic energy when the switch is pressed.
The photovoltaic system on the roof is the heart of the energy self-sufficiency system.
A rechargeable energy storage system stores the day's surplus electricity from the solar system for the night and can cover energy requirements on subsequent days with poor weather conditions.
As an alternative to battery storage systems, energy storage systems based on hydrogen technology are also available.
A combined heat and power plant (CHP) with combined heat and power generation, thermovoltaics (conversion of heat into solar power) or a small wind turbine in the form of a wind generator also generate the required electricity.
An important aspect of a self-sufficient home is regulated consumption control via an energy management system (EMS). The device flexibly adjusts the flow of electricity between the consumers in the building, in the garden, the power-generating system and the battery storage system.
The EMS helps to make optimum use of self-generated electricity. To do this, it networks all the appliances in the household that use electricity, monitors the respective consumption and coordinates the current energy consumption through intelligent power consumption management.
Depending on how much electricity the PV system is currently generating and how full the power storage unit is, appliances are switched on or off, the lights are dimmed or charging processes such as charging the electric car at the wallbox are postponed until later. The system decides when to run the washing machine or dryer and when the outdoor heat pump for the pool draws electricity. If everything runs hand in hand, the energy generated in the house is sufficient so that less or hardly any electricity has to be drawn from the public grid.
Another task of the EMS in the energy self-sufficient house: it helps you to keep an eye on the energy flows in the area of power generation and power consumption. To do this, it visualizes the data on electricity generation and consumption in the form of diagrams and statistics.
A particularly suitable concept for energy self-sufficiency in the area of heat generation and hot water production for single-family homes is the combination of a photovoltaic system and a heat pump. Geothermal heat pumps, brine-to-water heat pumps, air-to-water heat pumps or air-to-air heat pumps can be considered.
Depending on the technology, they use the heat from the ground or the air to cover the heating and hot water requirements in your own home. Practical: the heat pump can also be used to cool rooms in the summer months.
With a solar thermal system, you can use the power of the sun to heat water and heat your home. The collectors of the solar thermal system on the roof capture the sunlight and convert it into heat energy.
This thermal energy is transported via the solar circuit into a buffer tank and distributed from there for hot drinking or service water and for heating support in the home.
Ideally, you should draw water for self-sufficient living from your own well on your property. However, it is difficult or even impossible to obtain permission to build a well these days.
You will also need a solution for your waste water. Although it is theoretically possible to have your own small sewage treatment plant, there is often an obligation to connect to the public sewage system.
This area should therefore be left out of the equation.
The energy self-sufficient house can easily do without fixed telephone and Internet cabling on the property.
Instead, use wireless internet or LTE. To do this, you need an LTE router or a mobile LTE hotspot.
Alternatively, you can set up a private hotspot on your smartphone via Wi-Fi and share the mobile data connection.
The self-sufficient home also does not require traditional TV cabling via a cable connection.
Alternatives are a satellite system or television via Wi-Fi and the internet.