Back in March (link to the post here), I had written that we would be using a heat pump made by a company called Heliotherm to heat the house and warm water. That model had been suggested to WA by the company that did the first round of energy calculations for us. Since then, there have been some significant changes in the construction elements, and a new energy calculation is being done by a different firm. Also, a new opportunity became available in May, that of district heat[1]. Earlier in the year REFUNA, the company that runs this network, was in the process of adding capacity and they couldn't promise that they could serve us. By May they were able to give us a positive answer.
The advantages of this type of heating system is that they're generally more energy efficient and cleaner than local systems and boilers. They take up less room for installation and are very low maintenance. Wikipedia had a good write up on it, see the link in the footnotes below. In our case, the costs associated with the installation and hook-up should be below that of what it would be for the heat pump system because a lot of the necessary earth removal work will have to be done for the other connections anyway.
I'm actually very pleased about this development as I was not so happy about the air-source heat pump. At very low ambient temperatures, they basically become electric heaters.
[1] District heat is also known as waste heat, or utility-supplied heat. The term in German is Fernwärme, literally "distance" heat or warmth. REFUNA gets its heat from the waste heat of the nuclear reactor in Beznau near where we'll be. The Wikipedia article mentions this → District heating
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