Air Flow

Minergie is a fantastic concept for a cold planet, and to keep cool in winter. It traps heat with ease during the morning and radiates it for the rest of the day into the night. It supplements to solar radiation heat with geothermal heat, which it gets from the heat pumps. That heat is then spread across the buidling with hot water pipes.

In winter this is fantastic because it saves on energy and provides a comfortable environment. In reality it’s not unusual for me to notice 25°c in winter, so in effect it might be too warm, for some.

I live in a Minergie, which, in theory, means that I never need to worry about climatisation because the building keeps itself warm in winter and cold in summer. In practice the features that make a flat fantastic winter make it awful in summer.

Good in Winter

Large windows, in winter allow heat radiation in, so you use the sun to heat your apartment. From Spring until Autumn it has the opposite feature. It turns a room into a sauna, rather than giving an enjoyable temperature.