Passive wooden house with swimming pond and garden sauna

Hello forum,

Greetings to everyone; as a previously silent reader, I admire the expertise and the open, straightforward nature of those helping.

We are Steffi 36, Lisa almost 11, and me (Matthias) 46, currently planning the project of our lives.

About the project:

We want a passive wooden house with about 120-130m² living space in a bungalow style with a gable roof (shoebox shape with presumably 3m room height).

The house will have only narrow strips of light on two sides (street side/north side), and it will be open to the south and east with large window systems.

In the garden, a carport/garage and a natural swimming pond with an outdoor sauna are planned.

Facade made of wood (probably thermally treated spruce) with aluminum windows Uw under 0.8W/m²K.

The facade and the windows come from my employer (a large contractor specializing in wood), with the in-house planner and architect authorized to prepare plans and drawings.

I am personally responsible for the windows.

All other trades will be further contracted with recommendations from the employer (foundation slab/floors/ventilation system) and commissioned by ourselves.

The floor plan is currently being developed and the plot purchased (19x39m).

My question, and here I hope for your support: what type of hot water generation/ventilation is really sensible?

I read about concrete core activation/air-to-air heat pump/air-to-water heat pump/heating coil/heat pump; who has a passive house or experience in this field and can enlighten us before the heating or ventilation contractor directs us in the "wrong" direction?

We are rather not interested in solar cells; I am thinking of a wind turbine (the location allows it) and the setback distances will be well observed; the rotor is not supposed to be a classic 3-blade rotor but more toward a Darrieus rotor with about 1 kW power for own consumption.

Reasoning—friendly to neighbors; no shadow flicker and quieter running noise.

These are the hard facts—thanks and best regards Steffi and Matthias

Addendum:

Not only the facade comes from my employer, but the entire wooden house is delivered complete and ready on the foundation slab.

I have one more question: is it advisable to build the interior walls solidly to achieve better sound insulation and to use the thermal mass to balance temperature fluctuations?

With thanks and regards, Steffi and Matthias

...are my questions too easy, too difficult, too specific, or too superficial?

Regards Matthias

A carport/garage and a natural swimming pond with an outdoor sauna are to be built in the garden.

I'm just plain jealous :P and admit that I have no idea about passive houses ... (there's a forum specifically for building services engineering, whose colors remind one of a major telecommunications provider). Here, an air-to-water heat pump produces hot water (and heats the house, Kfw70 after 2015).

Hello Bieber,

no one needs to be jealous here. :)

I think that our construction costs are on the lower end and that we save a lot through own work (Carport/Terrassenüberdachungen/Teich/Saunahaus), but we also have a lot of work ahead of us.

Hello,

...are my questions too easy, too difficult, too specific or too superficial?

Your questions are indeed somewhat specific, I had to google what concrete core activation is. At first, it sounded like esoterically influenced concrete to me... ;) But it seems to be just an underfloor heating, nothing more. What’s supposed to be the advantage? You still need a heat pump for heating and in summer many heat pumps can cool in combination with underfloor heating as well.
However, the cooling capacity will be marginal anyway, unless you want some ice-cold surfaces in the house. They even mention that themselves on various pages...

But do you need the "heating" only for domestic hot water or also to heat the house? A passive house should be able to do entirely without heating, right?

With the size of your plot and the not particularly cold climate in Münsterland (my home! :)) a geothermal heat pump would be a good choice. Our neighbors have one with a trench collector that they buried themselves in the garden.

Interior walls made of stone certainly make sense, but that would contradict the "wood house/prefab house idea."
Is that even structurally possible?

Best regards,

Andreas