What is a Net Zero Building?

[@TheBigAnswer]

I am planning an off-grid house (way off grid, including not bringing in gas or propane or buying chords of firewood every year). A lot of stuff I started looking into had this "net zero" mentality. But when you have nothing to fall back on if you go over your energy budget, you really start to understand the huge difference in requirements for net zero (average throughout the year and over the building's lifetime) vs true energy-independence. I need to be able to produce 100% of my energy needs even under the worst conditions - the long, cloudy, cold, wet months of winter. Reducing energy demand is 99% of my focus. Passive house design is a huge part of that, and it really highlights the difference between net-zero and passive house goals. Theoretically, with net-zero you could have an absolutely terribly built, energy hungry home or building, with tons of air leaks and poor insulation, poor orientation, inefficient appliances etc. and just compensate for all that by covering every inch in solar panels and filling the basement with batteries. It would be super expensive and resource intensive and terrible for the environment due to the need for manufactuing all the solar panels and batteries, but it would still meet the requirements of being "net zero". Conversely, a passive house that's plugged into a grid powered by renewables could be far better from an environmental standpoint.

[@tealkerberus748]

Towns in temperate climates full of buildings with PV panels all over their roofs should pair very well with a municipal-level pumped hydro storage, if they have a suitable landform available nearby. The excess electricity the buildings put into the grid in summer can be used to pump water up to the top of the hydro system, and in winter they can draw that power back - and rather than losing power in storage like normal battery banks, in winter they should be gaining stored power from precipitation.

[@truebakerboy]

Did anybody else think the thumbnail was an old-texture Minecraft mossy cobble block?

[@smetljesm2276]

Nobody thinks that people moving in don't have a clue about raising plants.😅😅 Whenever i see thise buildings with trees i just 😂😂😂