Thermal insulation

Your building's energy-efficiency weak points

Whether it is freezing cold in the winter or burning hot in the summer: it is always desirable to have a pleasant and consistent indoor temperature in one's home. In order to achieve this while simultaneously reducing heating and air-conditioning costs, your home requires good thermal insulation. Only well-insulated homes remain pleasantly warm inside even when it is cold outside. According to a survey conducted by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e. V.), the windows are the most common weak points in buildings.

More than a quarter of heating and cooling escapes through the windows. That is why more and more homeowners are deciding to replace their windows and builders are opting for highly thermally insulated windows or even windows that meet passive house standards. The installation of new, thermally insulated windows currently ranks among the top two energy renovation measures.

Advantages of thermal insulation

You want to replace your old windows with new windows with higher insulation but you are not sure how you can save with new windows? Let's say your home looks something like this:

• a detached single-family house near Frankfurt am Main with two full storeys
• The year of construction is between 1979 and 1983
• The living space is approx. 150 m²
• You heat with oil and you have recently replaced the boiler
• You consume approx. 3,150 litres of oil per year (with hot water)
• Your old windows have single glazing

Renovating your windows and having heroal W 77 PH passive-house certified windows installed offers you several advantages. With passive house windows by heroal, you will meet the thermal insulation requirements of the future, save real money even in the short-term and at the same time help the environment by conserving energy. The before and after comparison:

• Your energy consumption drops from 3,150 l/year to 2,152 l/year.
• Your CO₂ emissions are reduced from 10.4 t/year to 7.1 t/year.
• With that energy, you could fly 11,400 km, drive 15,700 km by car, travel 82,500 km by train or 110,000 km by bus.

What are efficient houses?

The reference values for buildings are defined in EnEV 2009. A house whose maximum annual primary energy requirements does not exceed 100 kWh/m2. If, for example, a house requires only 85% of this energy, it is referred to as an "85 efficient house".

What does the passive house standard mean?

Whether a house receives passive house certification or not is determined by the heating requirements. A passive house can almost do without active heating, with passive solutions for most heating requirements. If 90% of the heating requirements can be saved through passive heating, a house is awarded passive house certification. In order to save that much heating energy, the passively generated energy must not escape through the building shell. This is ensured by passive-house certified windows and doors.

• The legal requirement for the thermal insulation of a passive house is Uw ≤ 0.8 W / m² K
• With heroal passive house windows, you not only improve the living comfort and indoor climate, but also reduce your energy consumption and heating bills.

Thermal insulation in the summer

Other ways to protect yourself from summer heat

Exterior sun protection

Outdoor sun protection helps prevent outdoor heat from entering your home. heroal offers various solutions to help you find the product that suits your needs.

Proper ventilation

Keep windows and doors closed during the day and limit ventilation to late evening hours, night and early morning. This ensures fresh, cool air.