American reacts to GERMAN HOUSES vs AMERICAN HOUSES (why German houses are built better)
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to GERMAN HOUSES vs AMERICAN HOUSES (why German houses are built better)
Original video: • 6 REASONS GERMAN HOUSE...
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One short word. YES we take the complete kitchen, all lights, all furniture, everything. Everything is so expensive that we keep things for years. We don't waste
Wow. I'm Austrian and just as surprised as the Americans. That really seems to be something typically German. When I moved into a newly renovated apartment in Austria, the previous owner bought a new kitchen for me. That's just part of it. Moving an entire kitchen is crazy.
@@ifzwischendurchthanks for this input! As a German, I take my things with me. Lights, kitchen and so on.
So I don't have troubles to find a flat or a house which I like.
I image that you guys don't take a flat, because you don't like the kitchen?
There would be many many similarities between GERMANS and CZECHS, yet this is also different and as surprising as is to Austrians. In Czechia the kitchen it’s still quite possible to move there your own (not common though), moving in your own fridge would be common though, yet lamps? This surely no one would move at all. No, no. Even if you had to move your beloved lamp from previous house on rare occasion… I would imagine You would buy replacement there (to the house you are leaving behind) in order to create cozy feeling for would-to-be-buyers.
My sister uses her kitchen in her third rental apartment now. Takes some time to carry that stuff around, especially things that are tall and not modular. Oven and dishwasher can be a bit harder because they are heavier. Fridges can be a pain in the ass if they are huge and heavy. Moving a non-modular couch is probably harder than a kitchen. And washing machines are probably the worst to move due to their concrete block counterweights.
My student shared apartment came with a kitchen, which does make sense if the rooms are rented independently. But that’s often cheap/crappy stuff and a lot better if you can get your own. Aside from light switches and wall sockets the room was empty and had to be reverted to that state when moving out.
@@ifzwischendurch it must be, because even on the borded with Poland and generally speaking east Germany you typically have at least somethich in the kitchen, its weird to just have nothing in the apartament
Please keep in mind that there is a wide variety of how houses and apartments are built in Germany. In my town you could easily live in a house built a couple of hundred years ago. I live in a house built around 20 years ago. We do have a huge double-size garage (enough space for two cars, bikes, storage etc.) and windows with screens. You can buy windows with built in screens or add them later. And for the kitchen: Most Germans will take their kitchen with them when they move and will adjust them a little to fit in the new home, f.e. buy a new counter top and arrange the segments according to the new room. Although we do have those "hidden" fridges, american style free standing fridges have become quite popular but they are often not that huge as in the USA. And for the attic: A lot of homes will come with attics. Some times they provide an extra room (bedroom for guests or an office) or they're just used for storage space. But what you might not know: A lot of German houses will have a basement (that's where the oil tanks were in the video) A basement will provide extra rooms for storage, or a laundry room, a small gym or whatever you need space for. You can never crawl under a German house! And for the oil heating: This is really coming out of use. You don't fill them up with small canisters but you'll order a road tanker who'll fill the tank with a huge hose.
And depending on how many people live in the house and how cold or long the winter is, you need between 4,000 and 6,000 liter of oil or between 3 - 5 Tons of wood pellets.
But most single family houses in todays styles in germany have build in floor heating and a heat pump (Wärmepumpe), mostly the air type. This heating system runs on electricity and thermal influences. In the air heat pump you have the outside air sucked into an outside unit and condense the air, which produces heat. You now funnel the heat into the house and use it to heat the water in your heat circle and floor heating. It functions basically like a fridge or AC but in reverse.
The good part with the well insulated houses is that you lose much less heat to the outside and that also reduces the amount that one must heat in winter. And because you only need about 35°C or 95°F you pay less for the already insane electric bills.
Yeah, I think the oil tank in my parents’ house has a 3000 l (800 gal) capacity. It is below ground under the driveway (but others have them in their basement). With better insulation and fewer people living there now, I think consumption is now only about a 1000 l per year. Usually, you would get it filled up once per year with a tanker truck making the rounds.
I've been to Germany now and then, but had no idea you took "your kitchen with you"...
That's totally unheard of here in nearby Sweden.
@herrbonk3636 Sometimes the pre-owner / pre-rentee is willing to leave the kitchen behind but than you have to pay him / her.
@@herrbonk3635 If you buy a house or a appartment you have to look for "EK" what means "Einbauküche" which means that there is a kitchen included
About playing kids: In Germany, kids don't tend to get shot. So they have no issues to go to playgrounds, parks, or meet elsewhere to play.
"Here in America, we need bulletproof houses ...."
Here in Germany, we *HAVE* bulletproof houses.
But we do not need them
.. no wapons around
You asked about lifespan of a german roof. My House was built in 1912 and still has its first roof. There was damage by a bomb in WW2 to the roof, but that could be fixed and was used to strengthen the construction a little, but basically its still the first roof with mostly the original 'Dachpfannen' on it.
this roof is just 75 years old!
As a carpenter and roofer apprentice I have seen some 100 year old roofs
In finance the lifespan of a roof is 50 to 80 years, depending on the materials. Slates go by 70 to 80 Years, tar shingles only 50 years
Pass auf sonst kommt noch irgendeine amt deswegen angeschissen weil du die "falschen" Dachpfannen hast 😂
Sorry @Dschonny 😢
My birth house in Holland was also bombed by the americans.....
A great-aunt of my was even killed. But there was no other solution.
The nazis were a pack of sht but we Dutch people are still your friends. ❤
The three piglets are exactly what we in Germany also think about American houses. 🌬
Quiet accurate representation of American and German houses ^^`
American houses are built like German garden sheds.
I love watching those shows, when they just keep the outer walls of a house and they change the whole inside walls... But still, I'm quite happy to even have inner walls made out of stone. So you don't hear so much from your neighbors.
@@regfin6855Don't insult our garden sheds.
Die drei Ferkel heißen Willy, Billy und Zilly…😂😂😂 und der Wolf 🐺 kommt und pustet das Haus aus Stroh fort. Das Haus aus Holz 🪵 brennt ab. So flüchten die kleinen Schweinchen 🐷 vor dem Wolf 🐺, in das Haus 🏡 aus Stein…
Und immer, wenn ich einen Bericht aus Amerika über einen Hurrikan sehe, muss ich an diese Geschichte denken. Ich kann der amerikanischen Billig- und Leichtbauweise nichts abgewinnen
@@BeaBosse Die Bauweise ist perfekt für Wohnmobile 😂
Im a Schreiner (cabinet maker) and i used to build wooden windows. The glass used in them varies from normal 2 pane glass, 3 pane glass, VSG (safety glass) which can be from 4 to 6 panes or with added noise reduction or thicker glass. Some panes are so ridiculously built that a sledgehammer would bounce off without leaving a scratch (anti break-in glass). And they can be ridiculously heavy! Some panes 1 x 2 meters weighing over 100 kg.
Hey wahrscheinlich ist das Basis-Wissen für dich, aber ich froh englischen Gaming-Freunden endlich erklären zu können, dass mein Freund ein cabinet marker ist! Habe nie eine englische Version kennengelernt und wäre im Leben nicht selbst drauf gekommen!
DANKE
Du bist ein Schrankbauer? Dachte du bist Carpenter, naja ok
@@chrstphrth1714 carpenter kann halt auch Zimmermann sein, glaube so ist es einfacher zu unterscheiden
@@chrstphrth1714 das ist nun mal das Problem in Amerika dass der Begriff carpenter eher zu den zimmermann gehört als zum schreiner. Cabinet Maker kommt der Sache näher oder wood worker. In England gibt es sogar den Jointer was wirklich eine 1 zu 1 Übersetzung ist für Tischler. Aber mit Jointer können die Ammis nichts mit anfangen.
100 kg?! Are they bulletproof by any chance? What were you trying to protect against, hitmen?
I am from Lithuania. It is absoulutely different to use air conditioning and opening windows. Every evening before our family goes to sleep we open window to let some fresh air in. It does not matter if it is winter and you have -20 outside. It is even better to get to sleep when it's a bit colder in the room, you will feel refreshed. That feeling when you are in a bed and getting warmer :)
In Norway most people will leave the window open during night. Many people do it during winter, as well - unless they have health problems that make it problematic.
German here: Personally, I would hate closets since if I have three rooms altogether I would like to decide how I use the rooms. E.g. I might want to use the "bedroom" as a living room, the living as a study and maybe the study as a bedroom. So many Germans prefer flexibility and customize the house/appartment including the kitchen. I am a tall person and my kitchen worktop is higher than in a standard kitchen, so no bending down or cooking in an uncomfortable position for me. And curtains? Many of us don't have them, maybe just for decoration. To shut out the light we have "Rolladen" (outside shutters, not blinds).
Also called "Jalousien"
@@eisflamme2438 jalousien are mostly used on the inside of the window and function only as a sun blocker. rolladen on the other side are only used on the outsinde and can be used as sun, sound, weather, insect and anti theft protection. rolladen are more expensive though because they have to endure all of this.
@@okumichi_shigeru I've always called them Außenjalousien
@@Max24871 there are external blinds(außenjalousien). but these are not as stable as roller shutters and, like their interior counterparts, function only as privacy or sun protection. if, for example, heat or sound insulation is required, there is no getting around roller shutters.
external blinds are often used for winter garden for example
Can a jalousie even turn a room pitch black like a roller shutter?
In Germany an AC was never necessary. Our houses are built so solidly and insulated that it takes several days for the walls to heat up. But rarely was it so hot for so long that the heat radiated inwards. So it was actually always pleasantly cool.
It is only in the last few years that we have noticed global warming and the heat periods are becoming longer and longer. Since then, our houses have become increasingly heated. Since then, new houses have been increasingly built with AC.
My wife and I have moved very often, but there was not a single kitchen of the previous tenants that my wife would have accepted, so we insisted that the previous tenant remove his kitchen. My wife is Italian and hardly any German kitchen would meet her requirements.
Our house was cool enough for decades but 4 years ago i allso purchased an ac because of globale warming. You dont need it everytime but sometimes its good to have it!
Some of the really old houses here in the UK are build with mud, cow dung and straw (cob) some houses in my village are older than the US it’s self dating back to the 13th century. Still standing with thatched roofs, very warm in the winter and very cool in the summer. Many of the walls are 2-3 foot thick.
Look up "Fachwerkhäuser". Our family still has one. We moved out of it tho and built a newer and bigger house next to it tho. It was built around the 1800's aswell but restoration would have been to expensive and now we just wait till its labeled as not safe so we can actually demolish it because "denkmalschutz" wont let us...
There are so many points in the video where he says "here in germany it is this and that" while it not necessarily the norm.
The super secure vault door for example. yes our house doors are much more robust than in america, but they usually don't have the extra bolts and you could get through them with a ram.
Floor heating is coming up more and more (and thanks to the isolation it is not that inefficent), but normal heaters on the wall are still more common.
garages depend massively on the location and age. our cars are not that big as american cars (but unfortunately the trend is rising and more and more space is needed to have your lump of metal waiting for you 99% of the time until you need it for a short drive) and so garages built 20-30 years are much more narrow. And if you have limited space to build houses, you may want to use the area more for actual living space instead of space for your car.
Also the point with ACs could have some background. it is not just less common for us, because of the electricity price, we just did not need it. the weather 20 years ago was much more balanced. yes it got hot in the summer as well, but not that extreme and also switching between sun ain rain was more frequent. but with the climate change its getting hotter each year and the periods between sun and rain switches get far longer. either you have boiling heat for weeks or rain. in the past it was more like a week of sun and then some days of rain cooling everything down again. also our houses keep the temperature much more consistent due to isolation and material. So if there is a really hot day or two, we just keept the windows shut (or only open in the night) and the heat stays outside. But due to climate change the importance of ACs is rising. I myself have a portable AC, because i can not take the heat very well. The "heat pump" he mentions actually works exactly as an AC, but not a central with vents, but small tubes with special liquid exchanging the heat energy in the rooms. Modern Heat Pumps also can run in both directions, so warming in winter and cooling in summer.
So lets directly get to the "Heat pumps are inefficent, especially when it is cold". Thats simply bullshit. of course, the concept is "take a bit of heat energy from the outside air and put it into the system" works better if there is more heat energy in the air, but that is not much of a problem. if you look at the physical unit of heat "kelvin" water freezes at 274K. So even in really cold winter with 250K it is just about 10% of the Kelvinscale. Also stuff to Burn (gas, oil, palletts) or direct electricity heater can at maximum have 100% efficency (in a perfect system). so if there is 1kWh worth of energy stored in the gas, you can not get more then that by burning it. Heat Pumps have efficencies fo 300-500%, so for 1kWh of electricity it can get up to 5kWh of warmth into your home. compressing the heat energy from outside, even with -20°C (no idea about F), takes not as much energy as directly heating up the air. sorry for that nerdy deepdive, i love science and technology and physics too much.
the open attic can be a design choice but it is not common at all. really old houses might have it or if you really want it, but usually there is either an attic or it is converted into actual rooms (which get insanly hot in summer).
"Stoßlüften" ~= "rush airing" is something you do especially on cold days. As we don't have AC, the air does not exchange much until we air. but having the windows open a bit is bad for temperature differences. So you quickly exchange as much air as possible without cooling down your walls or anything. warm air takes more water, so the more humid air gets out and cold air gets in, is getting heated up and picks up water again. otherwise it can get moldy.
Integrated or free standing fridges (and dishwasher, oven, etc) are a competely free design choice. I have a fridge similar size to his one and it is nothing special. But it looks neat of course, if everything kind of fits together.
last but not least the point of taking everything with you when you move. it again depends. sometimes apartments have a built in kitchen. it is simply part of renting that place. Sometimes you may take over the kitchen of the person renting that place before you, if they don't want/need that kitchen anymore. And most of the kitchen stuff like cupboards, ovens, fridges are more or less normed, so does not completely not fit in another kitchen. sometimes it may need some adaptions or a new counter top, but in the end you simply stack these things next to each other and its done. if you own your own house or plan to live somewhere for a long time, you might get a perfectly fit in kitchen, but that is something you don't do that often. same with lamps and closets etc. if you have a 20m² bedroom in one apartment and a 20m² bedroom in the other, it most likely fits pretty much the same and the lamp, which design you have chosen because you liked it, will most likely look similar in the other bedroom. Personally i kind of like the idea of build in closets, but on the other hand: then there is a closet. And you can do nothing about that. with the furniture you can put it left or right or wherever you want. I had it in one apartment as a room devider, it was great.
So of you managed to read all that stuff, have a nice day
This! I'd only add, that many houses don't use any of the heating technologies that were shown. Guess what these do? Burn gas. Yeah, and let's make Fernwärme great again! ;-)
The German door is supposed to keep out EVERYTHING. Heat, cold, air, and every enemy in front of it.
Even in my old 1980s house the original wooden front door is around 4 inches thick and is impossible to lift alone. It must be around 200 lbs or more. I removed it to repaint, no chance without help to handle it.
It looks nearly the same as my door. So nothing special.
*nod* Main reason why I only wrote about the heat was: the american door is built to keep people out. The german door does that as well as all the things you named, but crime is mostly an afterthought here.
We have safety doors and also our neighbor. Both brick houses but connected. When they slam the door the pictures at the walls make noises because they move 😅 like a little earthquake. The doors are really heavy.
The doors a thicker than in the video.
"Wärnär! Eckart! Ich glaub´ die Russ´n sin´ da!"
@@AleaumeAnders The American door is built to keep toddlers out
09:04 So, something that is often overlooked with german housing:
If you move into a german house or Flat, you can choose what to use the rooms for.
You dont need to use the designated Bedroom as such, you are much more flexible in how you want to use the space and how to furnish it.
Retired architect here. Originally, a "closet" was a small room used for study and contemplation. The word is so used in the Bible. Beginning in the late 1800s, Americans began storing clothes there. Before that clothes were stored in a wardrobe, der Kleiderschrank auf Deutsch. Personally, I consider the American walk-in closet a waste of floor space which could be better used elsewhere.
The German house buyer or apartment renter gets to select the style and color of their kitchen cabinets, die Küchenschränke. When moving, they will take the "kitchen" with them and not leave it behind.
Because of our isolated geography, we Americans grow up thinking that the rest of the world is just like us but speaks strangly.
Yeah so if you have more kids, or fewer kids or no kids or just would prefer a different layout you can super easily adjust everything to your liking. If the house already comes with 5 beds but you only need 2 then you are stuck between not utilising those rooms as you please or moving out and throwing out/giving away 3 perfectly fine beds which will end up being about as expensive as just furnishing everything with your own stuff
Wow how nice I pay 2000€ and I don’t have a kitchen I have to pay fing 15 k extras to buy a kitchen that gets destroyed when I move out from the transportation 🤦♀️ super 🤩
@@r.e.ddienstleistungen1676 you dont need to pay 15 k for a decent kitchen.
Depending on it, you also can re-use it... or buy off the existing kitchen if it is still with the Flat.
@@HafdirTasare when you have 7 m of kitchen show me one that is under 8000€. Also new buildings don’t have it inside.
21:22
Energy costs are very high in Germany, which is why the houses are usually well insulated. Thanks to the robust and well-insulated construction, the houses don't get extremely hot even in summer. I have an 80-year-old house. in the summer at 38°C (approx. 100° F) it was 23°C in my house without A/C. It was only very hot in the attic, but there are mobile cooling devices that cost a few hundred euros so you can bear it well
Energy cost is high because of the key mistake you guys made of getting rid of most of your nuclear power. Not sure what the real downside of having those was. One would assume a german engineer could make a reliable plant no biggie
@@Jebu911 There are no nuclear reactors that are still in operation in Germany. The disadvantages of nuclear energy include, among other things, that there are no reasonable final storage facilities for fuel rods and the fact that in the event of an accident, the area is destroyed for hundreds of years. example Chernobyl, Fukushima
@@fjolnir3068 Lets be real my man the co2 isn't any more reasonably stored when it mostly just hangs out in the atmosphere after its released from the plants. Also transmutation and reprocessing of nuclear waste has advanced quite a bit from the days of Chernobyl and we live in Europe if a natural disaster like a tsunami hits Germany mainland I think at that point nuclear meltdown is least of our worries as it would be safe to assume we would all be dead.
Sorry about the long text I just love to debate about energy. Have a nice day my European buddy.
@@Jebu911the plants release co2? No they don’t. They release oxygen and store co2.
Also, the energy costs are high because regulatory, profit hungry asshats, aso. I’m glad we’re progressing away from nuclear power. Also also, the processing of nuclear waste isn’t nearly as effective as you make it sound. I’m not sure what you are on about.
@@Jebu911chernobyl had nothikg to do with nuclear waste, it was (repeated) human error, and the fallout came down over most of europe
Garages aren't always that narrow, thats more of a city thing I believe.
It ultimately depends on how much land was available when everything was built.
Also Garages aren't always adjecent to the house itself.
Oh and we do have Attics and like everything about German Houses is about customisation. Basements/Cellars are more common though because they are (or used to be) used as cold storages
What you have seen in the video was a newly built house for sale. And yes, they come empty, just like a closet is also not filled with clothes when you buy it. I would HATE to have to remove an ugly cheap kitchen just to install the one I like and bought. Same goes for the lamps and basically anything else in the house. I want my couch, not the one an investment firm has chosen.
Another thing: You don't change houses in Germany like in the US. Once you bought (or better said financed) a house (and pay it off for the next 40 years) you stay in that damn house, no matter what. Houses in Germany are built to live in, not to generate the biggest profit possible. And if you don't move every three to five years like the average American, it doesn't really matter how much of a hassle moving the fridge would be because you don't move it (unless your wife tells you to so she can clean UNDER the fridge... Yeah, those women exist in Europe.).
AC: What for? For those three months a year when the rain gets a little warmer? Meh...
"rain gets a little warmer"... you must be from Hamburg 😏
South of Germany you could need some AC the last years... luckily with the boom of heat pumps a lot newer buildings also implement the reverse usecase and can use the heat pump for cooling in summer. Which imho is much more comfortable to an AC noisily blowing too cold air in one spot to achieve accepable cooling in the rest of room.
With heat pump you just cool down the whole floor (or even better the whole ceiling) of a room.
@@ThorDyrden
You're so wrong. 30 km south of Hamburg 😆
That's exactly what I thought. I'm a 24 year old German and I've lived in the same house my whole life, the house that my parents bought a few years before I was born, so they've lived here about 30 years now and I will inherit it and don't plan on moving out unless I need to for work or if staying interferes with my plans with a potential future partner. Our house was built in 1900, used to belong to the local smith and therefore the floorplan downstairs is different from most houses, much more open and wide spaces where the smithy used to be. I love that and would probably never find smth similar again if I looked for it. My parents have the same bedroom for the last 30 years, and only the second kitchen, a kitchen that my mum has waited for and dreamed of getting for decades- they don't plan on moving but if they had to you better believe my mum could not be persuaded to leave that kitchen behind, she'd definitely pack the whole thing up and take it with her lol. I get that it can seem impractical to someone who isn't used to that concept, but to me it's unimaginable to move somewhere and just having to take and be happy with whatever the previous owner left behind
@@n.q1158
I grew up in a 350-year-old shipyard where the earlier Elbe barges were built. Imagine the floor plan and especially the ceiling height. We were the only family in the village that had a five meter high Christmas tree, which still had a meter of space upwards :)
@@dan_kay That sounds amazing, I love that!
He forgot about one heating method in bigger cities: Central heating, which is heat that is produced by factories or heating facilities and gets delivered to your house, typically housing blocks...
Talking about housing blocks, he also didn't mention that also a lot of buildings are made of steel concrete...
Also only high end houses have floor heating and most houses have attics for storing stuff or sometimes drying you laundry
And the important option of gas heating.
You've mistranslated Fermwärme here, which would be district heating. Central heating is Zentralheizung.
floor heating isn"t high end today. If you live in a house that isn't older than 10 years, ist often has flor heating.
@@simongunkel7457 oh I didn't know, thanks
My apartment complex here in Leipzig has that type of heat. It is generated by the City, and piped to the apartments.
You absolutely take *EVERYTHING!* My parents have had their kitchen 25 years and moved with it twice. You payed for it so you keep it. It’s also way more sustainable to invest in good quality pieces that you know are going to stay with you regardless of whether you move or not. And yes you can rent fully furnished (unless you are renting with like a 10 year lease) just if you *buy* something then it usually won’t be
Interesting aspect about the geothermal pump. It can actually also be used to cool the house (if set up for it). It is in essence, a more efficient and fancy version of air conditioning that takes advantage of the fact that if you dig deep enough you have a consistent temperature.
Besides geothermal, heat pumps, either air or water based, can do the same thing. But the geothermal ones are the most efficient, last figures I saw they can be up to 7x more cost efficient than electric air conditioning.
If it is a fitted kitchen, you often leave it for the next owner/renter, but if it is a modular kitchen, then you usually take it with you.
Yeah but the next owner/renter have to buy the kitchen from you. It’s not for free.
@@Picco2008 true
sometimes the kitchen is included in the rent for some euros extra. it gets more common where i live at least
@@MetalGuitarTimo that’s true but still you have to pay extra
@@Picco2008 i still prefer it over buying a new kitchen yourself and move with it next time. so much work ...
I’m from Poland, The fact that kind of door are impressive is stunning to me 😂
I’m German and I agree, the door looks perfectly ordinary to me 😂
Most of the doors and windows are produced in Poland
Its only stunning as its getting harder for you guys to come over and break in to our houses jk 😛
Americans are amazing critters to watch. Perhaps one day they'll also learn how to become human. Perhaps when they learn to read.
Especially with all the safety-violence relationship they have there
19:25 the walls are so thick becaus of regulations in terms of heat insulation, these blocks are 50% hollow. Also there are other regulations that say, you have to calculate the max load the building can experience ( people and stuff inside, heavy storms outside ) and then add 40% just to be sure. So if you live in germany and you house meets up to regulations, you're pretty save from heavy storms.
You are "supposed" to change the rooftiles after about 20 years. Reality is, those rooftiles live up to a hundred years. Often the even get reused after the construction underneath gets renewed.
i am Polish but live in the place where Germans lived for a pretty long time and leaved a lot of their architecture, rn i live in a brick prison made by Germans that is around 100 yo old if not more but is completely renovated by my family
About the attic/heating situation: German houses have actual basements. They are like a proper floor, but at least half its height is below ground level. So there's space there to store stuff, install heater etc.
Only the older ones. Many new houses are built without basement for cost reasons.
@@reinhard8053same what my parents decided in 1996. Too expensive. They got a garage for storage 😂
That would also replace the "crawl space" he mentioned. We're talking houses here, not ships.
Where I grew up, houses without basement were a rarity. In some areas with a high water table, basements are often omitted. Ditto in more rural areas with cheap land, adding more above ground floor space can be cheaper. But in more densely populated areas, basements are the norm.
Of all the houses I have lived in or visited, I can remember only one house without a basement in the North of Germany, not too far from the coast (whether the high water table or cheap land was the reason, I don’t know).
@@Nordlicht05 A house without a basement is not a real house though.
That's a shed, bunkhouse, or cottage.
Terra-cotta roof tiles have a lifespan of about 100 years and that's roughly how often they need to be replaced as well if you maintain them well.
Better lets realistically say 40-50y
@@hogni6036that’s depending on the area you live in. They can even last up to 150 years.
When our roof was remade we got I believe a 30 year warranty on it.
@@hogni6036 My brother in law is replacing the shingles of his house right now. We found a time capsule, the house was build 1873. But it was reroofed 20 years ago but the reused the shingles. "Denkmalschutz" it was easier to reuse the shingles then. Now he simply swapped them against approved shingles. The House of my late Grandmother has a roof build in the 1950's build by a roofer, my Grandfather, it maybe reroofed in 10 or 20 years, at the moment it is still watertight. But this roof is build 'traditional'. Newer roofs needs an reroofing earlier.
... and when there is a storm you probably lose 1 or 2 tiles and not the entire roof like most houses in america >_
In Germany we don't need A/C, because in summer the maximum temperature is like...25-27 degrees Celsius. Also, in big cities we don't have gardens until apartments, but with houses it's a different story. But the cities are like 20-25% of the population, the rest live in small towns or in the countryside, where....the garden and the space are....huge....like 4 square km gardens;)And... our kids are playing in the special play gardens, which you can find in every 10 house quarter, at least one playground is present.
On the topic: Where do children play if there is no (large) garden? In Germany, renting is still the most common form of housing, so it's normal for children to grow up in rented apartments without a garden. But, don't worry, German children still play outside :) 1. playgrounds. You'll find a playground in almost every village in Germany, with slides, swings, seesaws and sandpits. Not every playground is in super good condition. But on the whole, you can't complain about them. And it's not just a meeting place for children alone. If the children are still very small, they are of course accompanied by their parents, who can meet and chat with other parents there. So in Germany, parents spend a lot of time with their children in playgrounds :) 2. clubs ("Verein"): In Germany, there is always the option of joining a club. It's not just an option, in Germany clubs are part of the cultural heritage. There are clubs for almost everything. Sports, i.e. soccer, volleyball, table tennis, swimming, rowing, bowling, climbing, ect. But other leisure activities can also be enjoyed in clubs. For example, singing in choirs and music clubs. The good thing about clubs is that membership is comparatively cheap and they tend to be inclusive. I would say that German children play less in the garden. They spend most of their free time outside their parents' property.
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We Germans like to personalize our homes, so prefer the houses and appartments to support this flexibility. That's why we take our stuff an move it to the next place. It's also easier to do makeovers in our homes if we want to change the style.
You should make it more of a habit to open several of your windows, Ryan! Especially in the Spring and in the Summertime, it's such a lovely sensation to feel the soft wind blow through and freshen the house, and to smell the lovely scent of the seasons in your rooms :) In the winter it is nice too when the wind is very fresh and crispy and feels cleansing and smells like the cold :) love your reaction as always! Greetings from the Netherlands :) We also open the windows lol we call it "luchten".
And we use the "roosters" for "ventilatie" :P (well at least my parents and I do :D )
Ich lüfte 5min morgens und 5 min abends. Das nennt man „Stoßlüften“ und spart Energie. Das Dauerlüften durch abgekippte Fenster schafft „Wärmebrücken“ im Winter ❄️ es bilden sich Wassertropfen am Fensterrahmen und es fängt an zu schimmeln.
Nein, ich brauche keinen Air-condition. Mein Haus ist aus Stein, dass kühlt im Sommer( wie eine echte Höhle, in der es dauerhaft 8 Grad kalt ist)😊
I'm from Germany and I can say, that we don't really need AC here. I am living in the southern part of Germany, and in summer, it's not getting so hot in our house. That depends of course, like if your living directly under the roof, it's getting hot really fast. In that case, we can buy smaller AC, made for single-room-use, not even that expensive. We have two small ACs for single-room-use and they're good. Most time, we're not even home in summer, so we can open windows at night and everything's done. So heating/cooling is not such a big problem for us. Bigger problem are costs for heating-oil/gas and energy-costs.
My father's house also has an oil heater installed, which consumes 1400-2200 liters of oil per year, depending on the winter.
The tanks are located in the basement and are filled by a tanker truck every two to three years.
We also simply heat with gas from the pipe.
I think this is still the most common in Germany, but the government is promoting more sustainable heating systems such as pellet heating systems or heat pumps, which, as long as the house is sufficiently efficiently insulated, generate enough heat even in winter and do not consume any more electricity than an equivalent system strong air conditioning.
If you then get your electricity from a provider who only sells green electricity, for example from hydropower, wind power and solar, then this heating technology is completely co2-neutral.
I actually like that the flats don't come with kitchens! in Germany people often stay really long in the same rented apartment, imagine being stuck with an ugly 20 year old kitchen for 10 years with crappy appliances that your landlord refuses to change! It's a bit of a nuisance and a lot of money for your first kitchen but when you move you just have to maybe rearrange the cabinets and redo the counter top and you can have exactly the kitchen and appliances that you want. Some people also choose to sell their kitchen or just the cabinets to the next renters. It's already hard to find nice flats in the bigger cities because so many people want to move there, so the landlords could put the cheapest ugliest kitchen in and still find renters 😅 All flats I've seen in Germany that did have built in kitchens had awful old kitchens with the doors not hanging straight and a nearly unusable oven 😰 same with all the other things, I prefer buying exactly what I want once and taking it with me than having to rely on the landlords taste.
if you don't like the kitchen, what will you do? Don't rent? Take a look at the actual market and you'll see, that's not an option. Better to buy something new that suits you than to stick with something (ugly) else.
@@MD-gr6so Sorry, but I never said that. I'm resposible for what I said, not for your interpretation. And don`t be rude by accuseing me of ignorance. Renting an flat with insalled kitchen, deinstall it, store it in the basement (f.e.), buy a ktichen that please you and when you leave, reinstall the old one - taking your own kitchen with you. Is there any german law that you will violate? I don't think so.
@@MD-gr6so Child benefit...? You are talking about Kindergeld. That is 250€ period. Nachzulesen im Merkblatt Kindergeld, Stand Januar 2023, Seite 9 unten 😉
@@MD-gr6so Dann hast du trotzdem schlecht gegoogelt...
@@MD-gr6so Das klang vor der Bearbeitung aber noch gaaanz anders...! 🤣
Ich weiß, dass ich kein Englisch kann... Deswegen kommt es immer zu Missverständnissen mit meinem amerikanischen Partner und seiner Familie. Ach ja, und lesen und schreiben kann ich auch nicht... 🤦
Our roof is about 50 Years old, on a hundred year ol house. Just renovated for better insulation, but the body remains the original 1906 bricks.
And a "Wärmepumpe" you can think of as a reverse Refridgerator. It uses coolands, electicity and the warmth-difference for heating. Most efficiant with floor heating
My roof is about 60years old. Some bricks might need to be changed but as long as the wood is OK, there is no need to change everything.
thats pretty amazing
@@ryanwass if you have electric heat and air in the US, like here in Georgia, you also have a heatpump. They don't do a lot once it gets to freezing. It comes with electric heat strips. those can easily double your powerbill in a winter month. Then again, it is not that cold much of the year here.
@@ryanwass Those heat pumps are not at all "very inefficient" when it get's colder, they are just extremly efficient (like 400%) when it's not that cold. Please don't fall for those right wing media talking points and Big-Oil's propaganda here, maybe ask your Brother:
-> There are heat pumps in cold Norway (60% of households) and all over Scandinavia, far more than here in Germany!
@@uliwehnerbelieve me there are heat pumps of great quality that work great even in freezing temperatures.
The reason why we dont have build in closets in germany is because our country (or at least the way of living) is very old. All kind of storage furniture evolved from chests centurys ago. You move, you take your closet-chest with you... simple as that. A habit that just never changed.
For the oil heating, you don't go to the store: you order it, and it gets delivered to you by truck. So you're generally only doing it once per year to fill up what you need. It's got a bit of stock trading feel, since you'll also want to do it when the oil prices are low.
Pellets are not THAT common for heating. It's CO2 neutral in theory, but you need a lot of wood for it...
In Sweden you hear issues with dust getting everywhere in the house from those pellets, and even people developing allergies to the dust. I think they're getting phased out as a heating method, or at least becoming less popular.
@@antoniajuel9582 they also want to limit the use of them in Germany, in because even while they're theoretically CO2-neutral and burning waste wood and everything, the microparticles in the smoke emitted by burning the wood lead to the air quality in some newly build areas where pellet heaters were highly used being as bad as in the middle of a highway during rush hour as soon as all of the people come home from work and start heating.
@@midnight8341 Hello Herr Kachelmann
Pellets have the big disadvantage that burning them create even more dust particles than burning gas or oil.
The advantage is, that they aren't a fossil fuel. Still dirty and not to be preferred.
@@antoniajuel9582yeah electric heating is likely the future.
"Stoßlüften" is good, because you exchange the air quickly, while the warmth of the room doesn't get lost... as it's mostly held in walls, floor, etc. which won't cool down as quickly.
Older houses often have a basement with a few rooms. One for the heating (central heating with wood in our case), another for doing the laundry, one for storage ,sometimes a "Hobbyraum" where you can do handcrafted things, have a party or use it as a gym (I do).
Our house is that old we even got a deep cellar where it's almost freezing cold so we actually don't need a big fridge.
We've got solar paneels on the roof for hot water and heating support . Good thing when sun is shining, pretty useless when you have only rainy days for weeks.
I would hate having used furniture that I haven't choosen myself. Not living in a hotel, it's my home.
We Germans almost never replace our roof shingles. That's the best thing about these teracotta shingles. They are not only used in Germany, but in all European countries. Italy in particular is known for its beautiful teracotta roofs.
Even the Romans already had floor heating. There are some excavated ruins of ancient roman buildings ca. 15 km from where I live, and they had floor heating. Amazing
I moved to Germany 40 plus years ago and live in a house that was built about 250 years ago. It does not need a AC just open the windows a crack and good is. I love that I get to build my kitchen the way I want and have the appliances that I want. The houses are all wired for electrics such as ceiling lights and kitchen appliances. The one time I moved I sold the kitchen to the next person that moved in I got a bit of money for the new kitchen and the other guy got a deal on the kitchen. When I was still in America we had to install screens our self and I did the same thing here. I happen to have two garages and rent one out . The small ones are useally are ones that were built after WW 2. supplies were scarce and cars were small most large cars were driven by people with money. We also have tons of solar panels on houses and lots of wind parks.
1:15 This door corresponds to the standard in Germany. A special feature of this door is the triple locking when you lock it. The latches are located at the top, middle and bottom on the exact side you see in the video.
Air Conditioning: There are certainly air conditioning systems in Germany. But just not in every house or apartment. Some houses are so well insulated that they don't need air conditioning. But theoretically you can have one installed at any time. But using AC costs a lot of power and money.
Kitchen: When you buy a new house, it is usually completely empty. You have to take care of the interior design yourself. Unless it is a prefabricated or reselled house that already has an installed kitchen. If you buy a house or apartment from someone, it is up to the seller whether he sells the old kitchen including the furnishings or without. Because not everyone has the same taste when it comes to furnishing style. The sockets under the ceiling are usually either for under-cabinet lights in the wall cupboards or the extractor hood, which is mounted above the stove.
Closets: Of course there are also houses or apartments WITH closets. As a rule, closets are a piece of furniture that you buy separately and in Germany they are typically placed in the bedroom. There are also homes with walk-in closets. These are entire rooms.
Crawlspace: In the past, crawl spaces existed in half-timbered houses. Modern houses don't have a crawl space, but they do have a real basement that can be accessed while standing upright. A basement like this is usually the same size as the living space above it. In the basement you will find: house connections such as gas, water, sewage, telephone, optional fiber optic, electricity, central heating and laundry room. The fuse boxes are often located on each floor and are embedded in the wall. The walls mainly consist of either concrete, reinforced concrete, bricks, sand-lime brick, aerated concrete or, if they do not have to support anything and are installed later, drywall with plasterboard. So we have solid walls throughout. Wooden construction like in America is rarely or not at all found.
Attic: Almost every house in Germany has an attic. The hatches to the attic have fold-out ladders so you can go up at any time. Some of the attics are so large that they are subsequently converted into living space. There is still storage space for boxes or other things. The hardly usable space where the sloping ceilings are very low becomes storage space, which is made accessible with small doors.
well described
Regarding airing out a room, the reason this can even be done in the middle of the winter is, that the thick stone walls keep their temperature really well, so the room almost instantly goes back to the temperature the room was in before letting the freezing air in.
We just like to decide ourselves what we put in our apartments and we don't like too much to have things (like a fridge) that are already used by others we don't even know. There are also apartments that have furniture in them, but the rent is higher and they are meant for people who stay only for a few month or so. When we rent an apartment we usually plan to stay there for (often really many) years, so it makes sense to buy our own stuff.
He forgot to mention the most environmentally friendly source of heating is FERNWÄRME which means that the city supplies households with heating via underground pipes.
My city generates this by using different means like water, wind and incinerater power stations.
Depends on whether the heat is a by product of other processes or if its produced only for heating, and how many people you supply since the loss of energy is quite high
And these power plants often have several interesting resources: for example: residual waste incineration.
I think most those kinda videos are made of houses. Not apartment buildings. Their for FERNWÄRME is unusual, i think.
@@Vivekgirl All our houses in the area, no matter what size, are supplied by it. :)
Fernwärme can also be generated by burning trash, so that's pretty cool!
Well to answer a couple of your questions (as an Architectural Engineer born in Europe)
First thing I am not sure if you are aware of this, but most properties in Europe are individually owned so you are usually renting from a person instead of a company even though there might be a real estate agency present to broker the deal. This will maybe explain the furnishing and certain renting practices. Also houses are not that commonly rented compared to apartments.
1. I have never seen someone take the lights (maybe the bulbs, but only if they put some fancy smart lights or something similar), you will usually have lighting fixtures even in a new home.
2. The person in the video is obviously renting a brand new house (or recently renovated), that is the reason why it does not have any furniture. Usually what will happen is that a person/landlord will buy a house or an apartment to rent and then the first person to rent it out will be the one to furnish it. On one hand this is desirable as you are the first tenant and everything is new, on the other hand you will have to deal with the hassle of equipping the house (including the kitchen).
3. This goes into the second point, when looking to rent or buy you will have different choices depending on your price bracket and preference. This is usually split into 3 distinct types of properties:
a. Empty-Brand new or recently renovated (like the one in the video, although the lights are an extreme), the bathroom will almost always be furnished.
b. Half-furnished, this will probably be either a brand new house where the landlord equipped a part of it or an older building where the previous tenant did not take all of the furniture. Usually, half-furnished means you will have a furnished kitchen on top of your bathroom (maybe a fridge or oven will be missing). The reason why I've heard people do this, (bring their own fridges) is because some people are germophobes and do not like the idea that someone might have kept some things in their fridges or did not clean them regularly/properly... This doesn't include the oven as often, because most people think that heat will kill everything anyway.
c. Fully furnished, this includes beds, closets, kitchen, bathroom, living room, even tv's (and lately even individual AC units in certain rooms)
The types of property and the level of furnishing depends on the landlord and the type of tenant they are trying to attract.
- Usually, the empty and half furnished will require a contract obligating you to stay there at least a year (sometimes you can bring this down to 6 months). These apartments/houses are marketed to families and can often fetch a premium price compared to other properties (the rent can be negotiated if you intend to live there for a longer period).
- For the fully furnished apartments, these apartments-houses are usually inherited from a family member or the owners moved somewhere. Afterwards the landlords did not want to bother moving the furniture so they are renting it as is. This can also be the case if the house/apartment is older (less attractive) so they are trying to attract tenants by taking away the hassle of furnishing. Usually these types of apartments are marketed towards workers and students since it is assumed that they have to move for a specific activity (studying or working) and that there is a high possibility they will leave within a couple of years or less (when they get a new job/graduate). So it doesn't really make much sense for them to buy appliances and furniture only to drag it around with them. These properties will often be cheaper and will change tenants more often.
In most of the cases you can negotiate with the landlord that any furniture that you buy will be left for his property but instead he will reduce your monthly rent by a certain amount or they will pay you completely for the cost (based on the receipt). Sometimes you can even negotiate with them so they are the ones who buy it (this is what I did in my current apartment). It is important to bring up these types of deals before signing a contract (when first viewing the property)
4. The door he is showing in the video is a security door, it doesn't have that much to do with actual security (even though it is in the name) but much more with sound/thermal insulation. This is much more important in apartments where you will have more noise from the public hallway. (This is not to say that they are not secure, more so that people care less about that specific selling point and more about insulation).
5. In regards to your question about plumbing, no we do not usually have a crawl space because even if the house is raised from the ground, that gap is filled with materials to help insulate the ground floor. Also the pipes freezing in the winter are a big concern therefore they are built inside the walls (through the brickwork), this also goes for other installations such as electrical or gas (yes there is gas heating in some homes in Europe, even though the person in the video did not mention it).
Lately it has become more popular to have the pipes exposed on top of the walls, instead of inside them, because it is cheaper and also if someone is renovating the bathroom/kitchen it is much easier to do it this way than to break the walls down to get to the plumbing. The only exception are the heating pipes which will always be on top of the walls, these heating pipes are filled with hot water and are coming from the central heating unit which is usually located in the basement or in the case of apartments (and some houses) there will be a state owned heating plant which will pump hot water into your home (through the pipes laid down beneath the roads and sidewalks) and bill you every month with your other utilities based on heat provided.
6. Yes you guessed correctly, this person is probably renting somewhere in a major city and therefore both the garage and yards are smaller. This is not the case for the whole of Europe. It mostly includes Capital cities and maybe the 2nd or 3rd largest city in a specific country. A comparison to the US would be to say that New York is the standard in regards to the square footage and size of the homes (including yards and garages).
7. The garage size in regards to not being able to open doors and such is also not a standard, while garages are somewhat of a rarity (for houses) they will come in different shapes and sizes, depending on how big the property is and if the garage is below the ground floor or a part of it. Apartments will have their parking spaces designated (unless the owner is renting/selling that separately) either in a parking lot or in a parking garage. The parking dimension for this is standardized at min 16.4ft x 8.2ft (5x2.5m) or bigger per vehicle.
8. Most houses in Europe are built out of brick and concrete (with the exception of some Scandinavian countries where wood is more common). To put it simply the method of building is similar to the US but instead of wooden beam frames we use concrete frames and instead of plywood panels we use brick, so all of the walls are filled in and not hollow. Plywood and other panels are sometimes used, but even then they are placed on top of the brickwork to avoid plastering-expediting the building process.
9. The exposed roof construction is not that common, especially in older homes. It is becoming more popular lately, but there are definitely homes with an attic space.
10. The round kitchen sinks are also not that common (compared to rectangular ones are)
In short this person is basing his observations on a very small amount of (probably expensive) properties - designer homes. And is probably paying for certain privileges without realizing that they are indeed a privilege instead of a standard.
Three short things:
1. We don't need AC bc we just open the windows (it doesn't get too hot bc of the thick brick walls)🧱🐷
2. Yes we take our stuff in our flat with us bc (he said it in the video) it's very expensive 💸
3. Yes many houses have attics 😁😌
a "Luft-Wärmepumpe" also works perfectly fine in winter and it's one of the most efficient methods to heat up your house (and cheap when running) :)
The pump extracts energy from the environment and the evaporator uses it to evaporate the refrigerant. This even works in sub-zero temperatures.
The compressor compresses the steam, thereby increasing the pressure and thus the temperature of the refrigerant. Electricity is used here to operate the compressor.
The condenser liquefies the warm steam and releases the heat into the heating water that is used to heat your home.
The refrigerant returns to its original form and the process begins again.
Yes that's true. The problem might be the expensive electric energy, so it could get better when the renewable energy gets more and cheaper.
@@UlliStein This is not true!
The heat produced by the air-to-air heat pump ("Luft-Wärmepumpe") is NOT produced from electricity. It gives off about six times as much heat as it uses electricity. They operate cheaply with very little electricity. (but the machine itself is expensive)
In fact, these are inverted refrigerators. (the cold side is in the yard) There is also a type that can work the other way around and can also cool in summer.
@@zoltanreisz2228 Yes I know but the argument against it in Germany it the cost of electric energy. That will become better in the future.
@@zoltanreisz2228 The machine is super expensive, you cannot really get one at the moment, let alone get it installed (you need a technician because of the gases used).
And the amount of money you would pay for electricity to run it is still more than just having Natural-Gas.
Now this shifts significantly as soon as you have Solar-Panels as they can take the main load off at peak times (and variable power-prices certainly help too), but thats also expensive, you need to get it installed (because as soon as you fiddle with stuff connected to the power-grid you need a certified technician) if the system is too big and need specialized setup.
It’s interesting that heat pumps are known so little since even (electric) American cars have them built in. it’s just the most efficient way of producing heat. It’s just not very quick. In that regard the video was wrong.
A lot if kids also grow up in apartment buildings, so there are no yards. As kids in Germany are more independent than American kids, they meet up with friends and roam around the neighborhood or the nearby forest or fields. There are lots of playgrounds to go to.
That was me growing up as a child. The one thing every German kid learns: be home when the streetlights turn on. Because then it's getting dark.
Oder, wenn um 18 Uhr die Kirchturmuhr läutet z.B. im Sommer
Yeah, be home for supper and go outside again until it's getting dark ☺️
and what if this so-called turks and refugees futher more and more ny birthrate, overüopulation, overfolking, concreteblockification, genozid, wood, animal, species, biossphere, living room/s dieing"?? , ...,
Here in France, my parents have a 200sq meter house, recently built and very energy efficient. Heating is built-in in the floor. With up to 6 people leaving in the house, 5 tons of pellets is enough to get heating and warm water throughout the year. One refill of the silo in the garage per year is sufficient.
They do have solar panels too, and 10 cubic meters rain water tank under the ground to store water for the toilets, garden, or any activity not needing drink water.
In Germany, you don't need air conditioning in most houses because the thick walls store the cold from the night relatively well and since our houses are relatively well insulated, a pleasant temperature can be maintained throughout the whole house all day long.
Unless you live under an old uninsulated roof. then it's hell in the summer.
At night we usually open one or two windows upstairs and the house can cool down again for the next day.
But the temperature difference between day and night here isn't as big as in some parts of the USA. If it's 30°C during the day, then that's a very hot day. At night it will probably be 16-18°c. This means you can regulate the temperature of your house very well without air conditioning.
Our crawlspace is called cellar :D that comes with houses that are not build from sticks. And if you have good public parks, safer streets and trustful society your kids can just play outside of your nonexistent yard.
And if you are not living in a village or very small town you can easily get by (or even live better) without a car.
The thing is: it's not that difficult to buy fabrics and sew your own curtains. Of course, if you want something super special, you'd buy them. But there are affordable options for curtains - it's not like you have to spend thousands of dollars on curtains.
Also, to add to the others who have commented on attics: if a German house has an attic, it usually has a firm flooring without any insulation peeking through. It kinda depends on what the room was meant to be used for, but if the room was meant as a storage place or a room to live in, it won't look like that. In the cities, there's a lot of people who have attic apartments - and it gets really hot there in summers since the roof is right above.
We also don't have trash compactors in the sink.
so one thing about airing out in the winter... as the heat in the air may leave the room which is right. the thick walls of the house tend to keep warm (a German house can hold energy/warmth for days without heating) so if you air out for like 10-30 minutes in the morning you fill the house with fresh air and when you close the windows it might take only minutes to feel warm again. this is specially fast when you have a heated floor.
The geothermal pump extracts heat energy from groundwater. It may be contraintuitive, but even when the groundwater is cold, you can still extract "heat" from it. For instance you pump up water at 15°C, pass it through a heat exchanger, which cools the water to, say, 12°C. That colder water is sent back to the groundwater. The heat you've extracted is used to heat the house.
As long as the groundwater temperature is above absolute zero (which is always! Absolute zero is -273°C) it contains heat energy, which (at least theoretically) can be extracted. So yes, you can get 20°C inside from 15°C water.
I prefer the German way when it comes to furniture and lamps, cause you buy them once the way you like and when you move you take them with you. In regards to kitchens it varies though. Most of the time the previous owner or renter will sell you the used kitchen that is already installed in the apartment or house, because yes, the kitchens are very specific to the actual place. When I moved a couple of years ago the new place didn‘t have a kitchen, but I got a used one for 200€ on ebay and I only moved my own fridge. I sold my own old kitchen and left it in the old place for the next renter.
Even did better in my student apartment, got a Kitchen which fitted in for 80€ bought a new 4 Meter Countertopp clued it on top of the old Kitchen for 50€ and sold it to the next one for 150€. I am 192, my then Girlfriend was 178 and the additional high of the 5cm countertopp lifted it to a nice high for the back. So searching used kitchens for cheap is a sport in germany.
If a German apartment has a equipped kitchen (stove, cupboards etc) there is a mention "einbauküche" in the brochure. The completely unfurnished kitchen is unknown concept here in nordics at least. Otoh, ceiling lights (ceiling fans have been out of fashion since 80's) you buy from a store and install (plug in) yourself. The switch, wiring and outlet are there but who would want to have construction company choose the style of your lights?
Equipped/unequipped kitchen:
My experience (especially in the northwestern part (Niedersachen) is, there are about 50/50.
A few homeowner told me, they only rent out without equipped kitchen. If they equip one, they have to keep them renewed if a new tenant moves in, or they have to store it otherwise, if the new tenant wants to bring his own kitchen. And after a couple years of storage, that kitchen has to be rebuilt, repaired or in the end, bought completely new. Therefor it's not profitable to rent out with equipped kitchen.
But sometimes you may buy the kitchen of the former tenant, but you will be responseble to sell it to the next one or take it out by yourself, if the next tenant does not want to buy it, because the apartement is rent out without one.
@@1337Arnonym Very much possible - my knowledge may be quite outdated and second hand experience at the best (except for nordics).
According to Hamburg rental agreements, at least a stove/oven and sink must be present. Depending on the location and landlord,
you can often find “off-the-shelf fitted kitchens” from the inexpensive segment. In Schleswig Holstein the rental offer is also 50/50 for an existing kitchen. Unfortunately, some landlords are of the opinion that even a run-of-the-mill kitchen from the hardware store or super inexpensive furniture store should last 10 years + without any complaints. As a landlord, you can also deduct a new kitchen from your taxes, while a self-occupying owner or tenant can only deduct the costs of installation from their taxes :)
@@manub.3847
But it is a speciality of Hamburg, so the law has its own name. Mostly there is nothing ( by landlord) but you might buy old one from former tenant, outside the contract.
Unser ist Haus ist über 300 Jahre alt. Wir haben auch keine Klimaanlage. Wozu? Im Winter ist es warm, durch die Heizung und im Sommer ist es relativ kühl. Und wozu gibt es Fenster, die man nachts öffnen kann.
Ich war schockiert über die neu gebauten Häuser in Großbritannien, wo ich 3 Monate war, die Wände waren so dünn.
Ich würde gar nicht wollen, dass eine Küche schon eingebaut ist, ich möchte meinen eigenen Geschmack umsetzen.
I'm Germany, and this entry door is normal. We have in our house two entries to home, first, you can get off your shoes, and then entry our home. Like Airlock.
And yes, we have no closet too. But, our home has A/C, but we build our home.
And yes, if you rent a room, then you have nothing, you need to buy everything. Your devices is yours, even fridge you buy, you take it to next home! That's normal!
Imagine your buy a Smart Fridge, you don't want to left yours fridge to another, you take it to your next home!
We have 4 Solar panels, but only for water hatting.
I don't understand how in America you rent a home with used fridge?! Can you believe it?!
Heating flour is standard since 50yr...
Omg, Oil heating is normal, we have two tanks and a oven, every 6 months we call a company and come with huge car and fill up with oil. Even we have the same oven from Viessmann. Yes, under the house.
Pallets is cool too, but we don't have oven for it. We have only Oil.
We don't have "Geothermal", but I say before, we have Solar, that heats our water. Even in Winter we have 200l warm water for shower for free!
Okay, this sink is weird for me too, we have 2 big square sinks. But we don't have Garbage disposal in our sink, but I love it in US! That's cool in US!
Yes, if your move, you take everything with you.
I think I need to react to this react video to and explain how Germany works.
We do have attics, most houses will have an attic. The Sichtdachstuhl is more of a fancy thing for a fancy house.
The one outlet almost at ceiling height is for the cooker hood. They usually don't come with long power cords so the outlet is close by. The kitchen usually stays in the house when you move out, since it is tailor made for the space. You can sell it to the landlord or to the next renter (which gives you some money for the next kitchen), but most Germans are pretty proud of the tailor made kitchen that they picked specifically for themselves. We don't move pretty often and stay in a flat or house for several years. Our working conditions are well regulated and no employer can throw you out of a job within a day. So you are secured to not lose your job overnight. That can give the security to invest more in your home.
My parents had a tailor made kitchen installed in the early 90s, in the Netherlands.
Few years ago, the plastic covers started to peel off, which is a known issue with the type of glue used to fix plastic covers to kitchen cabinets in that period.
So I took some time off, got out the iron, melted the remaining glue, peeled off the plastic, painted the cabinets and reinstalled them, replacing the hinges where necessary.
Instead of spending 10 to 20 thousand euro on a new kitchen, my mom got a kitchen that looks brand new for free. No one can tell its over 30 years old, or that I renovated it myself instead of having it done professionally.
I like to think this is how we do things in Europe and I still feel proud every time I visit my mother and look at the nice job I did.
The kitchen in my own house is from the 60s or 70s, it has wood cabinets with a beautiful wood grain, and a stone tile countertop. Its indestructible. It will outlive me. That kitchen will still be there in the year 2100, as long as no one is dumb enough to buy this house and tear out a perfectly functional kitchen.
So considering the "Do you take your entire kitchen with you" part: There are different ways of housing in Germany, either you live for rent, then you usually don't build everything hidden and well installed. In that case you have a single fridge standing around, an oven and so on, or your landlord provides you with a built in kitchen, then you leave everything for the next tenant. However if you buy/build a house, or appartment, you usually stay there for a long time and then you consider building the kitchen with it as well. Every now and then (we talk about 10 to 20 years) you might rebuild the built in kitchen, but that can cost you up to 20-30k€.
Everything else (furniture, cupboards, most of the lamps) you just take with you when you move, or you arrange something with the next tenant to leave stuff there.
If Germans rent a new flat/house, the rooms are usually empty so you can use them in whatever purpose you want. When I lived with my parents we switched rooms like three times, the living room becoming my room, me moving closer towards the door so I wouldn't wake up the family by walking through the entire flat when coming home later at night and so on. You just have a lot more flexibility if you can rearrange every single room whenever you feel like it.
With the thick brick walls there is some protection from warm. If it gets really warm we just put some protection on the windows, so inside it stays at a comformable temperature. If its getting colder in the evening we do the mentioned "Stoßlüften" to get the warm air out. It's important to not do that for too long, so the bricks dont get cold. The heat saved in the bricks will warm up the air in the room again. Thats most important in winter.
We actually take the furniture with us when we move out. Also the “fitted kitchen”. In the new apartment, only a new worktop is purchased and, if necessary, the kitchen cabinets are added or some are left out if the new kitchen is smaller than the old one. This is possible because the kitchens here are built using modular construction. But it also happens that the new tenant pays a “deduction” for the kitchen and then buys the kitchen from the previous tenant.
Idea for your lawn: if not used by children, plant the complete lawn with summer flowers. Mow only the path you want to walk. Looks amazing. Easy maintenance.
Austrian here beeing shocked about Germans, I'm with the Americans "Who has an extra kitchen in their basement. What does it even mean?"
In bigger cities the city offers to deliver the gas to your home by piping. So you receive a connection in your basement to a city-wide distributed pumping system of gas which powers either a furnace which is powered by gas to heat the house or if it's a bigger house it could be a combined heat and power plant which is called BHKW for short in German. This thing is especially useful because not only does it heat your house, no it also produces electricity!
My fathers house is an old farm house from the 18th to early 19th century (kind of baroque style). His heating is wild! He's got a geothermal heat pump, solar heating, an oil furnace and in addition to that a wood furnace. The ground floor has underfloor heating. The rooms on the front of the house are heated via the geothermal heat on every floor and on the back side of the house the rooms are heated via the oil furnace. This with radiators in each room. There is also a second smaller house which is heated by this system and the oil tanks take several thousands of liters each year. I think that is just crazy.
I thought thick doors like this were completely normal and not exclusive to germany. However, our kitchen did come equipped with cupboards and a refridgerator and a stove / oven. It also came with curtains. About the lack of AC, most german houses are so well insulated that they don't require an AC and it is usually still pretty chilly inside. Another thing, on a geological level we're on the height of canada, and the winters get cold here. That's why we have heated floors often. As for heating, the heating in our house also just uses natural gas.
They are increasingly common in Sweden, too. Some houses and flats still have old doors, but whenever we need to get a new door due to old age or other reasons, it gets upgraded to some type of security door similar to the one in the video.
They're common in Italy.
Pretty everything is the same as in the video. Main difference is new houses have screens on windows
Wenn ich mich recht erinnere leben wir, als Mitteleuropäer, in der gemäßigten Klimazone. Es wird im Winter nicht „extrem“ kalt 🥶 und im Sommer nicht „extrem“ heiß. Ausnahmen bestätigen die Regel…😊
This. Even in extreme summers it rarely gets above 25°C inside in my home, as long as I keep the doors closed
Its not exclusive. In the Netherlands, with the price of gas going up like crazy, people are insulating their houses very well. Doors like that are very common in new built houses, and in old houses, they have 5cm thick wood doors and rubber strips along the cracks on the side. It saves a lot of money on heating.
Double pane glass is standard and recently triple pane has become a thing, but its not worth it to install in existing housing. The time to make the money back from the installation cost can be up to 100 years.
My home is about 200 years old. No closet. We live with wardrobes. Nice decorative wooden ones. Mine was in possession of my mother when she started university, it still works fine for me, and will do so for the next generation as well. Smaller storage space allows you to reduce to really needed items. No air condition needed, these old walls keep cool in summer and warm in winter. (They are about 60 cm thick).
"What are they trying to keep out, or rather what are they trying to keep in?" - The door is made to keep the heat inside during the winter and outside during the summer. Most newer glass doors like this use double or triple paned glass for energy efficiency. That is one of the core fundamentals of building a house. Try to keep the heat were we want it.
On the point of heating: if you have an oil or wood pellet heater, you don't just go out and buy more. Usually you have a fuel truck come by once a year find fill up your reservoir (often in the late summer or early fall). You would get somewhere between 1000 and 2000 Liters of oil and be good for the year. Same applies to wood pellet heaters.
When it comes to the kitchen especially: here people don't always take everything with them when moving out. They often only take the built-in appliances they paid a lot for or especially like, like the oven, dishwasher, washing machine (which is in the kitchen or the bathroom in single appartments).
But often they also leave everything in if it doesn't fit their new kitchen or they get a new one for their new house or flat anyway.
Fridges are either built in with a front panel matching the style of the rest of the kitchen (the cupboards etc.) or they are 'solitary' like in the US with a white, black, colored or metal finish. And they are narrower and don't have an ice maker.
About the AC in Germany. Its only too hot for 4 to 6 weeks a year.
But its to cold for more than 6 months so you need good heating..
This summer in my apartment the temperature without AC went up to 26C/78F that's not too bad tbh and now when it gets colder outside 7C/44F I still have like 19C/66F inside without actively heating my rooms. I guess American houses are not that nicely insulated and weather is way hotter there as well.
Good point. And also the hot summers in Germany are quite recent due to climate change. In the time most houses were built, the summers weren’t so hot and if only for a few days.
@@maxbarko8717bro german summers are hard ngl
A lot of germans are not quite aware how hot it can be in the south of the USA. Austin, Texas for example is 10 Degrees below Madrid, so pretty much on the same height as the sahara desert.
He forgot to mention the most common way to heat in Germany :D Most houses are heatet by gas. Like water it comes through pipes inside and is burnt in a gas boiler and used for heating the house itsself and for heating the water.
Another variant is the so called „Fernwärme“. It means „distanceheat“. So there is gas which is heated at a power plant and gets through pipes to the houses. There, this hot gas is used for water and heating and then floats back to the power plant to be reheated. The gas itsself does not get burnt at any point because it‘s simply used as medium to carry the heat.
13:00 But do not forget that german buildings are built more massive and therefore keep coolness (or heat) much better than light buildings, so if you close your Windows throughout the day and open them at night you can keep the temperature way below 30°C (usually at less than 25°C) easily as long as you do not have more than 35°C over 5 days or more, which is pretty seldom. Even in my roof apartement I use my AC only 15 days in a hot summer, usually not more often than 5 to 10 days (a few hours) a year...
Our house is build of wood, clay and straw. At least 300 years old...
These materials are amazing, we don't need an AC! We get up to 28 C° when outside there are 40°C.
0:30 “The Three Little Pigs” fable is also known in Germany
1. The door is a completely normal door here.
2. No kitchen, no lights and no closet means that you have full customisability. Sometimes you can get the kitchen from the former tenant if they want to get a new one for their new place. And usually the price is the reason why you try to take your kitchen with you.
Yes you have to install window screens yourself. They are usually a DIY one-size fits all version you cut to your window's size and "glue" it to your window. A 2-pack costs maybe 5€.
3. Another reason to have no AC is environmental reasons. AC uses so much energy that needs to come from somwhere....
4. Yes garages are small. But you don't need much space in it anyway. If you want to store some stuff you have a basement. And you usually exit the car before entering the garage. My dad usually parks his car more to the right of the garage to comfortably get out on the left.
5. Some houses have attics, some don't. If there is an attic it is usually not isolated but you still can store stuff there. Some attics are isolated and used as an extra room. When I was a child, our rental flat had an isolated attic and my parents used it as a hobby room.
6. The boiler is in an extra room in the basement. Refilling oil is the landlord's responsibility who hires a professional to do it.
1. Air conditioning is not necessary as the climate is mild. The few hotter days dont justify the expense. Fans are enough.
2. No closets is the norm. We prefer antique armoirs from antique stores which are cheaper and deeper than Ikea
3. Love the windows which can be washed from the inside,but no screens.
4. Small yards, but many parks are everwhere, which is preferred to yardwork for working families.
5. Living close to your job is preferred to enjoy your time off.
6. Those who love gardening can get garden spots.
4.
I once had a flatmate from the USA. He was amazed when he realized the house he lives in is older than his country. :D
Yes it was a very old house of the type "Fachwerk"
My House in Germany is from 1750 🤭
the listings make very clear which house/apartment comes with furniture, which does without, and which comes with a fitted kitchen, which does not. It is just a matter of reading the right column in the listings :) Flats with furniture are usually more expensive.
Obviously, everyone likes a different interior design, if an apartment had light fixtures installed I would have changed them anyway :) - other stuff without compromise: new toilet seat, my kitchen, my furniture, at one point I have even changed the electrical outlets.
I guess it all comes down to how frequently someone changes house. We have tenants who have lived here already for 40+ years and people who move often, like students, of course, would not make that effort, but people who are about to live in that apartment/house for 20+ years will of course have their own stuff.
Long-term tenants:
My parents lived in the same apartment for a good 30 years and got permission from the landlord to install a shower (former pantry*) and a fitted kitchen.
*The building was also 100 years old and my parents were lucky that the toilet wasn't half a floor up in the stairwell. A few houses on this street still had toilets like this even in the 1970s.
At that time, my relatives in a small town in Thuringia still had a “community outhouse” in the communal garden of the house. And my aunt lived in the south on an old farm with an outhouse. Many of the neighbors there had already equipped their houses with new bathrooms.
see what you Americans don't understand is that it is not about how big something is build but about the quality and innovation!!!!
the doors are sometimes really secure. I am a Fireman in Germany, and if a house burns we avoid the frontdoor as entrace if the building is locked. First reason they are expensive. Second reason they are very secure, and it is mostly easier to crush a window from outside, which makes noise and aquires big tools, but windowdamage can be 200 bugs max, a frontdoor comes to tenthousand euros
well im living now over 15 years in the same house and we only had to replace 3 of those clay roof tiles, cause nearly ping-pong-ball sized hail managed to break them. And another thing about the sturdyness of german houses: they are build on foundations (so a good amount of concrete in the ground) instead of just putting it on the ground. So they are kinda anchored to the ground what gives them a good amount of stability. And they often have basements (so thats usually where the heating is located), cause you have to dig the hole anyway. That also answers your question about a crawl space under houses, there isnt.
Hello Ryan
My mother's house is about 150 years old and, apart from 10-15 roof tiles, still has the original ones and the roof structure is the same but better sealed than before. The windows were replaced once about 40 years ago.
We (Germans) usually take our kitchens with us when we move and then adapt them to the new conditions. Most of the time you just need a new worktop because the cutouts for the sink and hob no longer fit. If an electrical device is defective, it is simply replaced. Our kitchens have so many compartments, flaps and drawers that we rarely need a pantry and many houses (apartments) have a cellar or basement room (usually high enough that you can stand in it) in which we store things that we rarely need or our guests shouldn't see ;)
Since our houses are so well insulated and we use roller shutters, thermal blinds and the like, we don't need air conditioning (so far because it gets warmer every year).
Since we often live in rent and move less frequently than, for example, a US citizen does on average, most apartments and older houses are completely empty when we move in or move out. This means the new tenant/homeowner can decide for themselves how to use the rooms. If you want to build a wardrobe into your bedroom, you can do so simply with thin plasterboard cladding.
We (Germans) love DIY and have hundreds of hardware stores of all sizes, as well as an IKEA loyalty card ;)
What the man you are responding to said about gardens in his video is not entirely true, because many Germans have a garden in an allotment area. Where I live we have dozens of them with an estimated total of over 400 plots, so 400 families/people have an external garden (in my city alone) in addition to all those who have their own garden behind or next to the house or who rent with the right to use the garden .
I like the way you are happy about new things/circumstances.
cheers
The roller blinds are seriously one of the best inventions. I wish we had them in Canada. To sleep in a perfectly darkened room is a thing of beauty! I've never slept better than when I was in Europe.
@@jodibraun6383 amen to that. I live in Germany and use to live in the states, nothing beats roller blinds. Besides the pitch perfect black darkness at any day or nightime it protects you from burglary to some extend it keeps the storm out and it keeps your house cool in the summer again to some extend. Also it helps reduce the noise inside your Home from outside influence.
@@reinerhoch1357 I miss them!
The empty house: that's not only pretty normal here in Italy as well, but for us it's "the way it should be". We LOVE personalisations. and every one moves with everything they already have OR buy all furnitures following their needs and tastes. I totally understand it sucks when you have to move, but that's how most people thinks and feel (I live in a small apartment that I rented fully furnished, I just don't want to spend that much money every time I move 😅). And especially for the kitchen, that's been one of my criteria in choosing the house to rent: I wanted a functional kitchen with all the stuff I want, and yet I couldn't find a 5 or 6 fires stove! 😁.
Lamps and curtains ain't THAT expensive. I bought all new lamps for the house I live in and I spent about 250 bucks total. All bulbs are LEDs, so the energy bill comes in quite cheap, what costs most in terms of energy are, believe it or not, the fridge and the tv set, plus the oven (I do pizza at home every Saturday night, and that is the peak of the energy consumption 😀.
Yard and garages: yep, that comes from population density. There's a LOT of people and not so much land, so we just HAD to come to compromises. 🙂
Insulation: the more the better. It allows to save so much money and pollution 🙂, 'cause you don't have to have your heating system, or your air conditioning system, working all the time and at full throttle 🙂. An example, the house where I live is DECENTLY insulated, let's say "average", but I haven't used my heating yet, and I still have 71°F in the house, at this very moment. And I never used the a/c this last summer, a fan was enough. 🙂
Windows are part of insulation, not only for the noise but for the noise as well. And they ARE robust. You can have them mostly in wood, plastic (PVC I believe), or thick aluminum frames, and they're usually double glass or double chamber (3 layers of glass).
Innovative heating systems. Pellets are very efficient. Heat air pumps are efficient as well, and here most air conditioners work both ways: air conditioning in the heat, heat air pump in the winter. Same divide, double function. Really efficient, and heats quickly.
Yes, you take the entire kitchen with you, AND most of that stuff (fridges, stoves, dishwashers, ovens...) have a somehow standardised size, and fit in pretty much every kitchen furniture. So you can take YOUR favourite fridge in the new home and be reasonably sure it will somehow fit in the "fridge site" 🙂. It may be more important that one thinks... The fridge is often "calibrated" on the needs of the household, and there could be huge differences between one and the other...
Very interesting video. 🙂
Most things depend on the previous inhabitants. I had lamps, the kitchen and even bouight his old couch for 50€ (he was buying a new one after moving).
But now 5 years later, when I move out of here the lamps are coming with me as they are part of my smart home system.
If you let shut the window you dont need air condition when it is warm outside...we open up the windows in the early morningtime when it is cooler outside..and than we shut them and open it in the late evening to cool down ore refresh the air inside...and the garages in germany are not smallspaced always...my mother is living in a old farmhouse...the garage is as big as a commen apartment...big enough for 3 cars...most of garages must have space for bicycles of 3-5 persons and the car ...so
I'm in The Netherlands and live in an apartment building. The building is around 15 years old. Our frontdoors are like vault doors. There's a window next to it but the glass is so thick it won't break very easily. There's no way a burglar can get in and don't even think of trying to kick in a door, you will break your leg, lol
In Germany most even the smallest city usually have one "Kinderspielplatz" (Childs Play Ground). This are purposebuilt places with at least a swing and a sandbox. But usually includes a rocker, a slide and maybe a big wooden climbing castle (or sometimes a wooden pirate ship to climb on) or something.
Buuuuuut, off course we used to play together in some sort.
I'd say that another reason for air conditioning not being used as much in Europe is that if your house has good insulation, it stays nice and cool inside during the summer.
32:30 No, it is what he actually says: Pumping heat into the house and this is done via a socalled heatexchanger. It's basically an inside-out refrigirator. By using physic principals the heatexchanger can draw energy from the outside ( ouside means either air or water from ouside) and pump it into th inside as "heat".
We use either air from the outside or water. The water can come from two sources: From a deep whole that we drill into the earth (we then put pipes in and let water cycle through it - this gives much more heat because 150m down the earth it can already be warm in someareas in germany) or from a hose that we burry 1m underground (becouse otherwise the water could freeze in the winter).
crawlspace he says 🤣
German houses come with a basement, we don't (generally) build houses on stilts
German Houses are built to last and no woodstick huts. They are well insulated, also for hot summers, so in a brick house it stays cool even without AC
In Europe, most houses are made of brick or ceramic materials, aerated concrete. Wood is used for roof construction. The foundation of houses is recessed from 1 m to 1.5 m, unless the house has a basement. The windows are triple-glazed for insulation and the walls are 40 to 60 cm thick and have three layers with thermal insulation inside. The cost of heating with variable gas for a house of 200 square meters is approximately $3,000 per year with hot water. The durability of such houses is estimated at 60-100 years. The energy source for heating houses can be natural gas, coal, LPG wood, a heat pump (an exchanger extracting heat from the ground or air), we also have electric heating, and if someone has solar batteries, they heat the house practically for free. The construction time of such a house is 4-7 months. There are no termite problems in Europe and the weather is less humid. We waste less energy on ventilation or drying the moisture in the house.
Why we (generally) don't have AC in Northern Europe (I'm a Swede, I apologize to my fellow Europeans for generalizing): 1. Our houses are built to prevent the outdoor temperature from effecting the indoor temperature. This means that we have heating during the winter to heat up the indoor temperature (usually radiators but also sometimes floor heating as you saw in the video), and during the summer it remains fairly cool (think of being in a cave during the summer, if you are far into the cave/cave system, the air will be fairly cool, maybe even cold - my house goes from south to north, so if I close the doors to the southern rooms, there can be up to a 10 degree Celsius difference between outside ans inside). This means the houses need to be sturdy and well-isolated. To keep the air ventilated, we have ventilation systems that move outdoor air indoors in a way that doesn't effect the temperature much, except possibly in the winter if you have a system that reuses the indoor air to heat up the new air coming in - this is what he refered to as air heating pump, but I think he misunderstood it wrong because it does work during the winter, at least where I live. It doesn't use warm air from the outside in the winter, it mixes the cold hair coming in with the already heated air indoors, heating the new air up faster (makes the air real dey though...). We also have vents on most windows and for bugs you can always get bug screens that keep them out (if you spray the window-edges qith lavender oil and lemon that will also keep most bugs (and spiders) out because they are repelled by the strong smell, I do both inside and outside the window to keep them away). This saves us a lot on energy and heating, it means the houses can withstand wheather and that things like roofs are changed so seldomly that most people where I live will avoid buying a new house if the roof needs changing because it's so far between changes and the cost is high because of quality. I lived in my childhood home for 25 years ans we didn't change the roof once (except for if a specific tile broke we would change that particular tile of course).
2. AC is not good for your respiratory system and the temperature and strength of ACs can be bad for our health. A lot of people I know will turn the AC down when we travel because we will get a cold sleeping in it. This is especially true for ppl with respiratory issues 😊
This means we save money, our houses last longer, we preserve the environment and we preserve our health 😊🍀✨
Wärmepumpen or Heat Pumps come in multiple variants.
It works kinda like the cooling mechanismn of a fridge. you have 2 different pipleines, one that has water/air/or anything else, that absorbs heat extremely well in one line (on the same pump). It warms up by natural heating of the earth.
Near the Pump itself, it is entagnled with a different pipeline, which has a lower boiling point and as it evaporates, it cools water back down.
This "hot vapor" is pumped through your heating system.
The high outlet in the kitchen is for the cooker hood. so this is really well deigned that they thought of the outlet for the cooker hood...
And yes, for the lamps they are sometimes very ugly. So you actually have lamps you already like in your current apartment and want to use them in the next apartment as well. Same goes for the kitchen as taste varies...
Insects are a thing in germany but there is no plague as e.g. in florida. you can live withot screens as long as you don't open the window at night with the lights on or live near waters. (also if a window is tilted, insects don't get in so easy as if it is fully opened.
German houses don't have a crouch space, they have a whole basement instead. there is a hole room for storage and the heating system, etc...
Kids are playing in the streets as in the suburbs many people live in 'playing streets' (Spielstraße) where cars have to drive in walking speed and give precedence to pedestrians.
A german roof needs to be replaced every 50 to 60 years...
We have a geothermal heat pump. Heat exchangers are buried in the ground below the frost line (12°C) and the ground heat is transformed to up to 44°C using a Stirling pump. It works excellently.
Just to clarify with the fairytales ... most of the old ones youknow are probably german (like the ones made by the grimm brothers) but the german version usually is way more brutal and more like a scary story to learn from then a beautiful everything is wonderfull kinda fairytale