Zero heating building

Zero-heating building or nearly zero-heating building (nZHB) is a building having essentially zero heating demand, defined as having heating demand, Q’NH, less than 3 kWh/(m2a). The zero-heating building is intended for use in heating-dominated areas. The purpose of the zero-heating building is to supersede net-zero energy buildings as a way to bring building-related greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the EU. Zero-heating buildings address flawed net-zero energy buildings: the requirement for seasonal energy storage, in some cases poor comfort of living and narrow design options. In areas where there is substantial heating demand, it is hard to fill this demand with renewable power as in heating season, solar power is in short supply. This means heating in highly urbanized areas is directly or indirectly powered by, in a large part from fossil sources. About 2000 TWh of seasonal energy storage is needed to meet EU's winter heating demand, should it be alleviated from fossil fuel dependency. Since heating is partially routed through electricity (e.g., heat-pumps) there is also a clear need for seasonal electricity storage. In Germany alone, about 40 TWh seasonal storage is required. The zero-heating building overcomes the need for major societal infrastructural changes required by the net-zero energy buildings and thus addresses major concerns. Zero-heating buildings are built in the similar way as Passive houses while taking advantage in the recent developments in ultra-low U-value glazing. It has been shown that for buildings with window U-values approaching 0.3 W/(m2K) the heating demand diminishes. In this way, the building would not need a winter power reserve, and it obviously would not need any seasonal energy storage. Buildings built according to Passive-house standard can provide for removal of the central heating appliance with an only small auxiliary heating provision in the ventilation system. In 1995, Wolfgang Feist demonstrated that with a glazing U-value of 0.3 W/(m2K) zero-heating buildings could be realized.